E-Mail
An international research team led by the University of British Columbia (UBC) has uncovered for the first time the importance of a small gland tucked behind the sternum that works to prevent miscarriage and diabetes in pregnant women.
The organ in question is the thymus, identified in a study published today in the journal
Nature as playing a significant role in both metabolic control and immunity in pregnancy.
How the immune system adapts to support mother and fetus has puzzled researchers for decades. The study--conducted by an international research team, including UBC's Dr. Josef Penninger--reveals an answer. The researchers have found that female sex hormones instruct important changes in the thymus, a central organ of the immune system, to produce specialized cells called Tregs to deal with physiological changes that arise in pregnancy.