Reproduction Abstracts

Natural Killer cells have been linked to a number of disorders of pregnancy by both mouse studies and association studies in humans, with NK cell dysfunction leading to reduced spiral artery remodelling. However, little research has centred on the importance of the newly divided subsets of uterine Natural Killer cells, some of which appear to develop independently of E4BP4, in spiral artery remodelling, and subsequently fetal growth. Hence, we sought to analyse the dependence of different uterine subsets of Natural Killer cells on E4BP4 by use of a knockout model. Our data show that the E4bp4^−/− mouse possesses uterine NK cells and may show an altered distribution of DBA? NK cells compared to C57BL/6. Further investigation is needed to account for decreased vascular remodelling and fetal growth in this knockout model.