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Possible Mechanisms That Protect The Fetus From Maternal Rejection, Adina Ziemba-Goldfarb

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

There is no other foreign tissue transplant that has such a strongly parasitic relationship with its human host as the fetus. Although the fetus contains paternal genes, is completely tolerized by its maternal host in almost all pregnancies. This presents an immunological paradox and has generated a lot of attention from leading researchers in the reproductive and immunology fields. This paper reviews the leading explanations for this paradox; that it is attributed to a detailed mechanism of the maternal and fetal immune system in which tryptophan suppresses T-cells from attacking specific paternal cells, while maintaining a strong immune response against …