Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2020, Vol. 51 ›› Issue (5): 899-906.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2020.05.001

• REVIEW • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The Regulation Role of Uterine Natural Killer (uNK) Cells during Pregnancy in Mammals

YANG Xiaowei1,2, ZHAO Yongju2*   

  1. 1. College of Animal Science, Southwest University, Chongqing 402460, China;
    2. College of Animal Science and Technology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
  • Received:2019-12-10 Online:2020-05-25 Published:2020-05-16

Abstract: Uterine natural killer cells are the most abundant immune cells in deciduate placenta in the early pregnancy of mammals. During pregnancy, uNK cells play the important regulation role in the establishment of uterine immunotolerance environment, the development of placenta and fetus. However, studies on the regulation mechanisms of unique biological activity of uNK cells in pregnancy are limited. According to the related researches, the presentation of the important regulation role of uNK cells in the establishment of maternal-fetal immunotolerance environment and the development of placenta and fetus were well given in this paper, and the regulatory mechanism of hormones, glucose metabolism and DNA methylation on NK cells in other tissues were well summarized in order to provide new research directions and ideas for exploring the molecular regulation mechanism of uNK cells.

Key words: uterine natural killer cells, pregnancy, regulation role

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