Figure 1

Increased frequency of MAIT cells in intervillous blood. (a) Representative flow cytometry plots showing gating strategies to identify CD161^high and Vα7.2⁺ MAIT cells. (b–f) Comparison between paired samples of peripheral blood (PB), intervillous blood (IVB), and decidua parietalis (DP) cells. MAIT cells expressed as percentage of (b) CD3⁺, (n = 25) and (c) CD45⁺ (n = 9) cells. (d) CD4⁺, CD8⁺, and double negative (DN) MAIT cells expressed as percentage of total MAIT cells (n = 11). (e) CD45RA⁺CCR7⁺ (Naïve), CD45RA⁻CCR7⁺ (Central memory, T_CM), CD45RA⁻CCR7⁻ (Effector memory, T_EM), and CD45RA⁺CCR7⁻ (Terminally differentiated, T_TD) MAIT cells expressed as percentage of total MAIT cells (n = 11) and (f) T cells expressed as percentage of total T cells (n = 11). (g) Fluorescence minus one (FMO) controls for the experiments in (e,f), and (h) representative flow cytometry plots showing gating strategies for Naïve, T_CM, T_EM and T_TD MAIT cells (top) and T cells (bottom). Box and whisker plots show median, interquartile range and range of paired samples. The Friedman test followed by the Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to detect statistically significant differences across multiple paired samples (b–f). A Bonferroni corrected p value was used. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001.