About 40% of human pregnancies are unsuccessful and many of these are thought to be genetically normal. Our hypothesis is that decidual NK cells in abortion prone pregnancies produce IFN-gamma which primes macrophages. These primed macrophages are then triggered by a second signal to become the major effectors in early embryo resorption. Analysis of individual implantation sites was performed at day 9 of pregnancy to determine the cytokine profile of these NK cells and if NK cells selectively infiltrate the decidua of embryos that will undergo resorption. Use of a pan-NK cell marker (DX5) allowed labeling of decidual NK cells for flow cytometric analysis. Magnetic labeling and isolation of DX5+ cells from individual embryos was followed by RT-PCR and southern blot analysis. This thesis prevents evidence that a number of the embryos are infiltrated by higher numbers of DX5+ NK-cells with an incidence that is similar to the occurrence of early embryo loss in this experimental model. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.29461 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Ng Thow Hing, Christopher |
| Contributors | Baines, Malcolm (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Microbiology and Immunology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001944911, proquestno: MQ85812, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
Page generated in 0.002 seconds