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TH17 cells in human recurrent pregnancy loss and pre-eclampsia

Cellular & Molecular Immunology volume 11, pages 564–570 (2014)Cite this article

Abstract

T helper 17 (TH17) cells have been identified as a new lineage of helper T cells and have been shown to be important in host defense against extracellular infectious agents, autoimmune disease and chronic inflammatory diseases. Recently, TH17 cells have also been shown to participate in successful pregnancy, as well as in the pathogenesis of diseases of pregnancy, such as recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) and pre-eclampsia (PE). Here, we review our current knowledge of TH17 cells in human RSA and PE. We also discuss how the local uterine microenvironment affects the differentiation of TH17 cells and the mechanisms that regulate TH17 cells during pregnancy. Research into TH17 cells will not only advance our understanding of TH17-related pregnancy complications, but will also facilitate the design of novel therapies for reproductive diseases.

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Acknowledgements

We sincerely apologize to colleagues whose work could not be adequately discussed or cited due to the brevity of this review. Our work is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China Grants 81202367 and 81330071.

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  1. Institute of Immunology, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Binqing Fu, Zhigang Tian & Haiming Wei

  2. Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, Hefei, China

    Binqing Fu, Zhigang Tian & Haiming Wei

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Fu, B., Tian, Z. & Wei, H. TH17 cells in human recurrent pregnancy loss and pre-eclampsia. Cell Mol Immunol 11, 564–570 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/cmi.2014.54

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