Immunologic Disorders

Babette Biesecker, Susan Gennaro, and Steven D. Douglas

Young women of childbearing age are at peak rise of developing immunological disorders. Although some diseases alter fertility, many immune diseases improve during pregnancy, and an increasing number of women who suffer from immunologic disordersm such as immunodeficiency or autoimmunity, are able to give birth to live children. Pregnancy is associated with imprtant immunologic phenomena. The fetus, which can be considered an allogenic graft, grows in conditions that contradict the usual laws of transplantation immunogenetics. The failure of fetal rejection has been explained by a sequence of immunologic alterations that include placental factors that are immunosuppressive, pregnancy-related protein factors, alterations of cell phenotypes or functions, the effect of changes in levels of steroid hormones, and specific circulating factors and antibodies (eg, anti-HLA antibodies)...