Abstract
THE foetus inherits histocompatibility antigens from the father and becomes an allograft to the mother, but is not rejected. Possible reasons for this have been discussed by Billingham1. Various hypotheses, including a physiological barrier between the mother and the foetus and a reduction of the immunological reactivity of the mother during pregnancy, have been suggested. I recently reported the inhibitory effect of pregnancy plasma on the mixed leukocyte culture (MLC), which I believe not to be mediated by an antibody but possibly by the particular hormonal situation of pregnancy2. Here I report experiments to study whether 17-hydroxycorticosteroids are inhibitory factors in pregnancy plasma. I studied the inhibitory activity on the MLC reactivity of plasma taken at various intervals during pregnancy and measured the plasma cortisol level of each specimen.
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KASAKURA, S. Is Cortisol Responsible for Inhibition of MLC Reactions by Pregnancy Plasma?. Nature 246, 496–497 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/246496a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/246496a0
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