Sallie Permar, M.D., Ph.D., Chair of Pediatrics, the Nancy C. Paduano Professor in Pediatrics and Professor of Pediatrics, has been awarded an NIH R01 grant for her study, “Role of maternal-fetal interface NK cells in pregnancy maintenance and congenital CMV transmission.” The study aims to define the role of maternal NK cell populations in regulation of fetal tolerance and protection against placental CMV transmission in the setting of chronic maternal CMV infection.
Immune cells at the maternal/fetal interface play dual roles of orchestrating immune tolerance required for pregnancy maintenance, while also protecting against placental pathogens, such as cytomegalovirus (CMV). Specialized inhibitory immune cells, known as natural killer (NK) cells, are predominant and dynamic immune cells populating the decidua throughout gestation. Yet, there is a major gap in our understanding of the role of NK cells in protection of the fetus against immune rejection and pathogen invasion. The role of NK cells, including recently identified CMV-specific memory NK cells, in the interplay between fetal tolerance and protection against congenital CMV transmission is poorly defined.
Dr. Permar, collaborators at Duke and Tulane Universities, and her research team hypothesize that maternal NK cells are critical to both pregnancy maintenance and prevention of CMV reactivation in early pregnancy. They believe that understanding the intersection between maintaining immune tolerance, while protecting against placental pathogens is critical to develop immune-based strategies that reduce the morbidity and mortality resulting from adverse pregnancy outcomes.