Abstract
Pregnancy is commonly considered a semi-allograft, as half of the fetal genome derives from the father. However, in normal pregnancy, several tolerance mechanisms have been demonstrated to counteract the maternal immune response. Among these, the expression of HLA-G by invasive cytotrophoblasts has shown to play a role in creating a tolerogenic condition at the feto–maternal interface. The possible role of HLA-G molecules in pregnancy and as a marker for oocyte/embryo selection in assisted reproduction technology is reviewed in this article, and the contrasting results present in the literature is compared.
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Acknowledgements
Roberta Rizzo would like to thank Professor Olavio Baricordi, Dr Marina Stignani, Dr Loredana Melchiorri and Dr Amanda Neville for their writing assistance.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The author has no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.