New insight into the immune response holds hope for better understanding recurrent miscarriages and organ transplantation. A molecule present only during gestation may help improve the success of organ transplants. Smoothing the Path MCG researchers have identified a potential new pathway for treating erectile dysfunction. Plan Your Giving Realize immediate cash while securing an income for life. A mother's immune system may attack a fetus from multiple fronts, by sending in killer T-cells, by producing antibodies that target fetal cells or by coating cells with a destructive, soluble blood factor called complement, according to researchers at the Medical College of Georgia.
Antibodies coat viral cells, activating the complement deposition and eventually killing the virus.
The broad assumption has been that there is not a connection between T-cells and complement. To further explore new evidence that there may be, the MCG researchers already are looking at a model with a factor produced by T-cells that may activate the complement. The MCG research team, led by Dr. Mellor and Dr. David Munn, described in the August 1998 edition of Science a mechanism for localized suppression of the mother's immune system that enables the fetus to escape attack. They found that during pregnancy, cells in the placenta trigger an isolated suppression of the mother's immune system so it doesn't reject the genetically foreign fetus. IDO disables the immune system by degrading tryptophan, an amino acid essential to the survival of T-cells.