Immunoactive products of placenta. III. Suppression of natural killing activity.

Placental and trophoblast-enriched cells from iso or allopregnant mice (14 to 17 days of gestation) strongly suppress natural killing by mouse splenocytes. The suppression is not strain restricted and acts at the level of the effector cell. It was not reduced by pretreatment of trophoblast cells with RNA and protein synthesis inhibitors, nor by prostaglandin synthetase inhibitors. However, treatment with trypsin abolished the suppressive activity. Because CTL and ADCC cytotoxicity were also inhibited by trophoblast cells at the effector stage, we postulate that trophoblast cells in vivo are endowed with the ability to inactivate various types of cytotoxic cells in their vicinity that are potentially harmful for the conceptus.