Modulation of Allospecific CTL Responses During Pregnancy in Equids: An Immunological Barrier to Interspecies Matings?

Maternal immune recognition of the developing conceptus in equine pregnancy is characterized by the strongest and most consistent alloantibody response described in any species, a response directed almost exclusively against paternal MHC class I Ags. This work investigated the cellular immune respon...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of immunology (1950) 1999-04, Vol.162 (8), p.4496-4501
Main Authors: Baker, Jessica M, Bamford, Anona I, Antczak, D. F
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Breeding
Cells, Cultured
Crosses, Genetic
Cytotoxicity Tests, Immunologic - veterinary
Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte - analysis
Equidae - genetics
Equidae - immunology
Fathers
Female
Histocompatibility Antigens Class I - analysis
Horses
Major Histocompatibility Complex - genetics
Major Histocompatibility Complex - immunology
Male
Mothers
Pregnancy
Pregnancy, Animal - genetics
Pregnancy, Animal - immunology
Species Specificity
T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic - immunology
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Summary:Maternal immune recognition of the developing conceptus in equine pregnancy is characterized by the strongest and most consistent alloantibody response described in any species, a response directed almost exclusively against paternal MHC class I Ags. This work investigated the cellular immune response to paternal MHC Ags in pregnant and nonpregnant horses and donkeys, and in horses carrying interspecies hybrid mule conceptuses. We observed profound decreases in classical, MHC-restricted, CTL activity to allogeneic paternal cells in peripheral blood lymphocytes from both horse mares and donkey jennets carrying intraspecies pregnancies, compared with cells from nonpregnant controls. This is the first evidence in a randomly bred species for a generalized systemic shift of immune reactivity away from cellular and toward humoral immunity during pregnancy. Surprisingly, mares carrying interspecies hybrid mule conceptuses did not exhibit this transient, pregnancy-associated decrease in CTL activity. The failure of interspecies pregnancy to down-regulate cellular immune responses may be a heretofore-unrecognized, subtle barrier to reproductive success between species.
ISSN:0022-1767
1550-6606
DOI:10.4049/jimmunol.162.8.4496