Fig. 1: Profiling of transcriptomic changes in uterine trNK during decidualization. | Nature Communications

Fig. 1: Profiling of transcriptomic changes in uterine trNK during decidualization.

From: IL-21R-STAT3 signalling initiates a differentiation program in uterine tissue-resident NK cells to support pregnancy

Fig. 1

a Schematic diagram showing the change of uterus during pregnancy. The diagram in the bottom depicts the interaction between uterine trNK and trophoblasts which promotes spiral artery remodeling in decidua basalis. b Flow cytometry showing dynamic changes of uterine trNK (Eomes+CD49a+), cNK (Eomes+CD49a-), and ILC1 (Eomes-CD49a+) in virgin mice and during pregnancy (from gd6.5 to gd15.5). Overall NK/ILC1 cells are gated by live CD45+Lin (CD3/CD19/CD5/Gr-1)-NK1.1+NKp46+. c Cell number and percentage (in CD45+ immunocytes) of uterine trNK from virgin and pregnant (from gd6.5 to gd15.5) mice (n = 5 per group; ***P = 0.0002, **P = 0.0013, **P = 0.0074, **P = 0.0059; ***P = 0.0001, *P = 0.0155, ***P = 0.0003, **P = 0.0047, ***P = 0.0007). d Percentage of Ki67+ uterine trNK from virgin and pregnant (from gd6.5 to gd11.5) mice (n = 3, 5, 5, and 4 per group; ***P < 0.0001, **P = 0.0032, ***P = 0.0001, **P = 0.0041). e Principal component analysis (PCA) of uterine trNK from virgin mice and pregnant mice during decidualization (gd6.5, gd8.5, and gd11.5) (n = 2 per group). f Spearman’s correlation between uterine trNK from virgin mice and pregnant mice during decidualization (gd6.5, gd8.5, and gd11.5) (n = 2 per group). g Venn diagram showing total upregulated genes in uterine trNK during decidualization (related to Supplementary Fig. 1h). h Gene ontology (GO) analysis of the total upregulated genes in uterine trNK (g). i Single-sample GSEA (ssGSEA) scoring of uterine trNK at the indicated gestational days using the GO terms enriched in (h). j Heatmap graph showing relative expression changes of the representative genes in the enriched terms in uterine trNK at the indicated gestational days. Numbers indicate the percentages in each box. Data are shown as the mean ± SEM. P-values are calculated by two-sided unpaired t-test, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. Data are representative of at least three independent experiments (b–d) or two independent experiments (e–j). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

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