Immunological Aspects of Gestation in the Tammar Wallaby, Macropus eugenii

Abstract

Sensitization to male histocompatibility antigens and repeated pregnancy to the same male were found to have little effect on fertility or length of gestation in the tammar wallaby, M. eugenii. However, in some sensitized females a long interval occurred between removal of pouch young and the next birth. In addition to studies on fertility, the immunological response of female tammars to their mate has been examined by one-way mixed leucocyte culture (MLC) carried out at the beginning and end of one breeding season. In virgin females, examined at the beginning of the breeding season, the MLC response to the prospective mate peaked on day 6. In contrast, by the end of the season, MLC responses were much lower and peaked earlier, on day 3 to day 5.

Cooperative inflammation: The recruitment of inflammatory signaling in marsupial and eutherian pregnancy

“…For example, in Monodelphis domestica skin graft rejection begins 19 days after transplantation and is complete at 31 days (Stone et al, 1997), whereas the postattachment period is only 2 to 3 days . In the Tasmanian devil Sarcophilus harrisii, the graft rejection occurs after 14 days (Kreiss et al, 2011) but the postattachment period is 2 to 7 days (Rose, 1989), and in the wallaby Macropus eugenii graft rejection takes 10-16 days whereas the post-attachment period is around 7.5 days (Walker and Tyndale-Biscoe, 1978;Renfree and Shaw, 2014). This timing is consistent with the necessity for marsupials to give birth before the onset of an antigen-specific immune response, but not with such a response being the proximate cause for parturition.…”