Bentham eBooks: Immunology of Pregnancy:

Bentham Science aims to publish eBooks in all major areas of technology, social sciences, medicine and humanities. Their eBooks provide professionals, corporate researchers, academicians, graduates and under-graduates globally with the most contemporary information in their subject areas of interest.

Here is a short review of one of the latest eBooks of Bentham, “Immunology of Pregnancy”. Since September, 1992, Nature article which read: “Can there be life without LIF?” researchers now realize that the maternal immune system is both a foe (it can reject the conception) and a friend (immune cells and molecules are also necessary for successful pregnancy). Leukemia Inhibitory Factor (LIF) when absent, prevents embryo implantation in rodents. From fecundation to parturition, immunity acts as a Janus, required but potentially dangerous. However, the complexity and the diversity of immunity in pregnancy deter many from entering the field. This book will try to give a complete overview of immunity from gametes till parturition, in brief, but with complete chapters and subsections, each written by specialists in the field. 

The importance of the topic relies not only on “the riddle of the fetal allograft”, which is per se fascinating, but on its consequences, linked to the development of IVF and in general, Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) / Medicine. Since the discovery that there would not be (mammalian) life without LIF, it has become clear that Immune Molecules, and in general, transient post mating inflammatory reactions are required for successful implantation. Disruptions of this process can lead to implantation failure / sterility.

To read the full review, you can visit- http://www.benthamscience.com/ebooks/9781608057337/index.htm