Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF, 190K) PPT slides of all figures Alert me when this article is cited Citation Map Services Email this article Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new content in the JEM Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Guimond, M.-J. Articles by Croy, B. A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Guimond, M.-J. Articles by Croy, B. A. Social Bookmarking                            What's this?

Articles

Engraftment of Bone Marrow from Severe Combined Immunodeficient (SCID) Mice Reverses the Reproductive Deficits in Natural Killer Cell–deficient tg26 Mice

Marie-Josée Guimond^*, Baoping Wang, and B. Anne Croy^*

From the ^* Department of Biomedical Sciences, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1; and the Division of Immunology, Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215

A large, transient population of natural killer (NK) cells appears in the murine uterine mesometrial triangle during pregnancy. Depletion of uterine (u) NK cells, recently achieved using gene-ablated and transgenic mice, results in pathology. Pregnancies from matings of homozygous NK and T cell–deficient tg26 mice have <1% of normal uNK cell frequency, no development of an implantation site–associated metrial gland, and an edematous decidua with vascular pathology that includes abnormally high vessel walls/lumens ratios. Fetal loss of 64% occurs midgestation and placentae are small. None of these features are seen in pregnant T cell–deficient mice. To confirm the role of the NK cell deficiency in these reproductive deficits, transplantation of tg26 females was undertaken using bone marrow from B and T cell–deficient scid/scid donors. Engrafted pregnant females have restoration of the uNK cell population, induced metrial gland differentiation, reduced anomalies in the decidua and decidual blood vessels, increased placental sizes, and restoration of fetal viability at all gestational days studied (days 10, 12, and 14). Thus, uNK cells appear to have critical functions in pregnancy that promote decidual health, the appropriate vascularization of implantation sites, and placental size.

This work was financed by awards from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs.

¹ Abbreviations used in this paper: hu, human; LGL, large granular lymphocytes; NO, nitric oxide; NOS, NO synthase; u, uterine.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search

TABLE OF CONTENTS