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. 2022 Jul 1;13:837281. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.837281

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Copyright © 2022 Murrieta-Coxca, Fuentes-Zacarias, Ospina-Prieto, Markert and Morales-Prieto

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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Structure and immunological functions of fetal EVs in pregnancy. Fetal cells, including endothelial, immune, dendritic, and CTB cells, and especially STB, release great amounts of EVs to the maternal circulation. Upper: EV surface and internal cargo. Middle: Fetal EVs transfer their cargo to maternal immune cells by different mechanisms including endocytosis, phagocytosis and membrane fusion. Lower: EVs can act as APCs directly interacting with maternal T cells and trigger immunotolerance or activation. STB, syncytiotrophoblast; CTB, cytotrophoblast; IC, immune cell; EC, endothelial cells; DC, dendritic cells. For the sake of clear illustration, the size of structures is not displayed in realistic proportions. The figure was drawn using pictures from 105 (http://smart.servier.com/).