Placental infections are major causes of maternal and fetal disease. This review introduces a new paradigm for placental infections based on current knowledge of placental defenses and how this barrier can be breached. Transmission of pathogens from mother to fetus can occur at two sites of direct contact between maternal cells and specialized fetal cells (trophoblasts) in the human placenta: f...

In placental mammals, viviparity—the production of living young within the mother’s body—evolved under the auspices of the immune system. Elements of immunity were incorporated, giving pregnancy a mildly inflammatory character. Formation of the placenta, the organ that feeds the fetus, involves a cooperation between maternal natural killer (NK) cells and fetal trophoblast cells that remodels th...