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OPINION: Some Severe Maternal Diseases Might be Caused by Fetal‐Versus‐Maternal Disease (FVMD)
Author(s) -
Yan Lei,
Zuo Changting,
Wei Deying,
Zhao Xingbo
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
american journal of reproductive immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.071
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1600-0897
pISSN - 1046-7408
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0897.2009.00789.x
Subject(s) - fetus , disease , pregnancy , medicine , immunology , pathophysiology , pathology , biology , genetics
Citation Yan L, Zuo C, Wei D, Zhao X. Some severe maternal diseases might be caused by fetal‐versus‐maternal disease (FVMD). Am J Reprod Immunol 2010; 63: 189–192 Pregnancy‐related disease is a common challenging clinical problem. From our review and clinical experience, we hypothesize that many severe pregnancy‐related complications might be caused by a fetal‐versus‐maternal disease (FVMD), based on the fact that maternal disease is related to immunity and that fetal cells are present in maternal blood. Fetus is a semi‐antigen and can be considered as a tumor or graft. The pathophysiology of FVMD must be complex. We speculate it to be a three‐step process: impaired maternal immunological function, fetal T‐cell activation and injury of target organs. More experiments and research will be needed to prove our hypothesis.