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News and Views
Nature Medicine 12, 991 - 992 (2006)
doi:10.1038/nm0906-991
Killers become builders during pregnancy
Philippe Le Bouteiller1 & Julie Tabiasco1
- The authors are at the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale U563, Hôpital Purpan, BP 3028, 31024 Toulouse cedex 3, France, and they are members of EMBIC, a European Network of Excellence. e-mail: philippe.le-bouteiller@toulouse.inserm.fr
Abstract
Circulating natural killer cells might be best known for their ability to disable and maim target cells. But in the pregnant uterus of humans these cells seem to have a positive effect, regulating placental development and angiogenesis (pages 1065–1074).
The public and clinicians have become increasingly interested in understanding reproductive failures such as recurrent miscarriage, intrauterine fetal growth retardation and preeclampsia. In recent years, reproductive immunologists have begun to pay more attention to the role of natural killer (NK) cells, a large, granular lymphocyte subset with an important function in the early response to viral infections and tumors.
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