Culture and Maintenance of Immune Cells to Model Innate Immune Status at the Feto-maternal Interface

Abstract

The inflammatory process leading to human labor is mostly facilitated by immune cells, which can be studied by isolating and characterizing primary immune cells from the feto-maternal interface. However, difficulty and inconsistency in sampling approaches of immune cells and short lifespan in vitro prevent their usage in mechanistic studies to understand the maternal-fetal immunobiology. To address these limitations, existing cell line models can be differentiated into immune-like cells for use in reproductive biology experiments. In this chapter, we discussed cell culture methods of maintaining and differentiating HL-60, THP-1, and NK-92 cells to obtain neutrophil-like, macrophage-like, and decidual natural killer-like cells, respectively, which can then be used together with intrauterine cells to elucidate and investigate immune mechanisms that contribute to parturition.