PLX255159

GSE104842: Bone marrow-derived progenitors become decidual cells and are essential for implantation and pregnancy maintenance

• Organsim mouse
• Type RNASEQ
• Target gene
• Project ARCHS4

The pregnant decidua is infiltrated by many immune cells which are thought to originate in the bone marrow (BM) promoting pregnancy. In addition, BM-derived progenitor cells (BMDPCs) become non-hematopoietic endometrial cells. However, whether BMDPCs become non-immune decidual cells and their functional contribution to pregnancy were previously unknown. Here, we show that embryo implantation stimulates vast BMDPCs recruitment to decidua, where BMDPCs differentiate into non-hematopoietic stromal decidual cells. In addition, to determine the functional importance of BMDPCs to pregnancy, we used mice with endometrial stromal-specific defects precluding successful pregnancy. BM transplant (BMT) from wild-type (WT) into Hoxa11-/- mice, which lack decidualization, results in uterine transcriptional changes leading to stromal expansion, gland formation, and marked decidualization otherwise absent in Hoxa11-/- mice. By contrast, BMT from Hoxa11-/- into WT mice induces pregnancy loss. Importantly, in Hoxa11+/- mice, which have increased pregnancy losses, BMT from WT donors leads to normalized expression of numerous decidualization-related genes and rescue of pregnancy loss. Collectively, these findings reveal that BMDPCs have a novel non-hematopoietic physiologic contribution to decidual stroma, thereby playing indispensable roles in pregnancy establishment and maintenance. SOURCE: Francesc Lopez (francesc.lopez@yale.edu) - YCGA Yale University