Maternal–fetal tolerance and parturition

Journal of Reproductive Immunology 101–102 (2014) 6–17 11 with the Bishop of Oxford Samuel Wilberforce concerning the validity of Darwin’s theory of evolution. It was the liberating force of science versus the authoritarian view of religion that Man was a unique creation of God, and hence distinct and different from all animal species. Sciencewon.As yet, there are still somewhosteadfastly refuse to consider that what has been learned from the study of pregnancy in animals has any relevance towhat happens in human reproduction and its maladies. This has not had an impact on the increasing amounts of grant monies given to the study of animal models of human disease. In this debate, it is first necessary to review the proper use of animal analogmodels of human disease, and to emphasize the fallacy of uncritical extrapolation from animals to humans. Nevertheless, careful consideration of the structure and composition of the feto-maternal interface in mice, rats, and humans indicates rather striking homologies. Indeed, the similarities appear to outweigh the differences, save for minor details. Further, an in-depth consideration of the implications of a currently popular hypothesis concerning the function of humanuterineNK cells at the feto-maternal interface in healthy and disordered pregnancy appears to reveal a major flaw in the proposed mechanism and its importance. Indeed, the existing data support the alternative view that findings in animal models may indeed be quite relevant to human pregnancy problems. The importance of a rigorous scientific approach to the use of both animal and human data is emphasized. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jri.2013.12.015