Research

Our department aims to investigate the immunological mechanisms which lead to a successful pregnancy outcome. As the fetus represents the product of histoincompatible individuals, a comparison with a successful transplantation has been raised. The current theories hypothesize that pregnancy is possible because the maternal immune system actively tolerates paternal antigens expressed in fetal structures and in the fetus itself. For this reason spontaneous abortion has been proposed to be a "tolerance dysfunction phenomenon". Our main research projects address the studies of tolerance mechanisms in murine models and the investigation of therapeutic approaches which can trigger these tolerance mechanisms. Moreover, we also examine using in vitro cell systems (e.g. trophoblast cell line Rcho-1 and JEG) possible cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in tolerance towards the conceptus. We employ immunological and molecular biology methods such as immunohistochemistry, Western-Blot, Real Time RT-PCR, Flow Cytometry, ELISA, migration assays, siRNA interference, etc.