{"id":129479,"date":"2021-08-28T19:31:10","date_gmt":"2021-08-28T14:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=129479"},"modified":"2021-08-31T09:53:26","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T04:23:26","slug":"specialized-cells-maintain-healthy-pregnancy-by-teaching-the-mothers-immune-system-not-to-attack-developing-fetus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/specialized-cells-maintain-healthy-pregnancy-by-teaching-the-mothers-immune-system-not-to-attack-developing-fetus\/","title":{"rendered":"Specialized cells maintain healthy pregnancy by teaching the mother\u2019s immune system not to attack developing fetus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Source: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.downtoearth.org.in\/news\/health\/specialized-cells-maintain-healthy-pregnancy-by-teaching-the-mother-s-immune-system-not-to-attack-developing-fetus-78691\"><b>Down To Earth<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<h5><b>What is the News?<\/b><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A study published in Science Immunology has talked about the role of <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">specialized \u201ceducator cells\u201d in maintaining healthy pregnancy.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>About the Study<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientists have conducted this study to understand how the immune system generally learns what to attack and what not to attack.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is because the immune system is known to protect the body from invaders such as infections and cancers.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the immune system does not target one\u2019s own organs or tissues or in the case of pregnancy, the developing fetus.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A fetus shares a blood supply and immune system with its mother. But the fetus is genetically different from the mother, and it also develops specialized organs like the placenta that might seem foreign to the mother\u2019s immune system.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h5><b>Key Findings of the study:<\/b><\/h5>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientists have found there is a process known as<\/span><b> immune self-education <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">which happens in an organ called the <\/span><b>thymus<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, specialized \u201ceducator cells\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>These specialized educator cells<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> teach developing immune cells what not to attack by showing off a diverse array of the body\u2019s own proteins. Essentially, this process teaches immune cells what constitutes \u201cself\u201d.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>During pregnancy, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">these cells teach the mother\u2019s immune system to recognize the developing fetus as part of her \u201cself,\u201d protecting it from being attacked as something \u201cother\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>But these educator cells<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> require a unique protein called the<\/span><b> autoimmune regulator, or Aire,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to teach the complete curriculum of the body\u2019s own proteins. Any mutations in Aire lead to a devastating autoimmune disease.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>There are also extrathymic<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Aire-expressing cells or eTACs which reside outside the thymus. They are predominantly in the lymph nodes and spleen. These cells are also essential for protecting pregnancy. In absence of eTACs, the mother\u2019s immune system gets overactivated and attacks the fetus.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h5><b>Significance of this study:<\/b><\/h5>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Pregnancy complications<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> like miscarriage are common. But the cause is frequently a mystery.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Hence, understanding how the immune system works <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to protect pregnancy may help scientists and doctors better identify, and hopefully prevent or treat, more of these pregnancy complications.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Down To Earth What is the News? A study published in Science Immunology has talked about the role of specialized \u201ceducator cells\u201d in maintaining healthy pregnancy. About the Study: Scientists have conducted this study to understand how the immune system generally learns what to attack and what not to attack. This is because the&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/specialized-cells-maintain-healthy-pregnancy-by-teaching-the-mothers-immune-system-not-to-attack-developing-fetus\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Specialized cells maintain healthy pregnancy by teaching the mother\u2019s immune system not to attack developing fetus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1738,9],"tags":[9094,8698,1843,9403],"class_list":["post-129479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-science-and-technology-daily-factly-articles","category-public","tag-biotechnology","tag-issues-related-with-health","tag-maternal-health","tag-specialised-cells","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704935384},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}