CD28/CTLA-4 interactions with their specific B7-ligands (CD80 and CD86) play a decisive role in antigenic and allogenic responses. Recently, experimental transplant studies demonstrated that donor-specific tolerance was achieved by blocking these interactions. However, the role of blockade of CD28/B7 costimulatory pathway in the maintenance of materno-fetal tolerance has received little attention. In the present study, abortion-prone CBA/J females mated with DBA/2 males were administered with anti-CD80 and anti-CD86 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) on day 4 of gestation (time of murine implantation). We demonstrated that the combined use of anti-CD80 and anti-CD86 mAbs induced maternal tolerance to the fetus in the abortion-prone CBA/J mice, and displayed expansion of the maternal CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cell population and up-regulated expression of CTLA-4, suggesting an active mechanism of regulatory T cells in suppressing maternal rejection to the fetus. In addition, the anti-CD80/86 mAbs treatment enhanced Th2 and reduced Th1 cytokine production in mice, implying that the development of Th2 cells might contribute to maternal tolerance to her fetus. Together, these findings indicated that blocking CD80 and CD86 enhanced maternal tolerance to her fetus in mice by increasing regulatory T cell function and skewing toward a Th2 response. Our data might provide an enhanced understanding of the maternal-fetal immune relationship and be helpful in clinical trials for immunotherapy of recurrent spontaneous abortion.

The embryo expresses paternal Ags foreign to the mother and therefore has been viewed as an allograft. It has been shown that anergic T cells generated by blocking of the CD28/B7 costimulatory pathway with anti B7-1 and anti B7-2 mAbs can be transferred as suppresser cells to prevent allograft rejection. Little is known, however, about the in vivo function of anti-B7-treated T cells after their transfer into abortion-prone mice in the maintenance of materno-fetal tolerance. In the present study, abortion-prone CBA/J females mated with DBA/2 males were administered anti-B7-1 and anti-B7-2 mAbs on day 4 of gestation (murine implantation window). The anti-B7-treated T cells subsequently were adoptively transferred into abortion-prone CBA/J mice. We demonstrated that costimulation blockade with anti-B7 mAbs at the time of implantation resulted in altered allogeneic T cell response and overcame increased maternal rejection to the fetus in the CBA/J DBA/2 system. The transferred anti-B7-treated T cells appeared to be regulatory, decreasing responsiveness and generating clonal deviation in maternal recipient T cells. The transferred CFSE-labeled T cells were found to reside in the spleen and uterine draining lymph nodes, and a few were localized to the materno-fetal interface of the maternal recipient. Our findings suggest that the anti-B7-treated T cells not only function as potent suppresser cells, but also exert an immunoregulatory effect on the maternal recipient T cells, which cosuppresses maternal rejection to the fetus. This procedure might be considered potentially useful for fetal survival when used as an immunotherapy for human recurrent spontaneous abortion.