Research
Supervisors: Dr Francesco Colucci, Professor Ashley Moffett
Immunogenetics of uterine Natural Killer (uNK) cell and trophoblast interactions in placental development
Defective placental development underlies major disorders of pregnancy including pre-eclampsia (PE), recurrent miscarriage (RM) and fetal growth restriction (FGR). Uterine NK cells account for 70% of decidual leukocytes in the first trimester of pregnancy and are thought to regulate trophoblast invasion and spiral artery remodelling through interactions between their highly polymorphic receptors (KIR) and polymorphic MHC class I expressed by the trophoblast, HLA-C (Hiby et al, 2010).
Using data from a prospective clinical cohort study at the Rosie Hospital, I will compare maternal KIR and maternal/fetal HLA-C status with mean uterine artery pulsatility index, used as an estimate of spiral arterial remodelling. Our group are currently using mouse models to enable us to investigate the contribution of the maternal NK cell repertoire and fetal MHC class I to reproductive outcome.