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Macrophages exert homeostatic actions in pregnancy to protect against preterm birth and fetal inflammatory injury
Nardhy Gomez-Lopez, Valeria Garcia-Flores, Peck Yin Chin, Holly M. Groome, Melanie T. Bijland, Kerrilyn R. Diener, Roberto Romero, Sarah A. Robertson
Nardhy Gomez-Lopez, Valeria Garcia-Flores, Peck Yin Chin, Holly M. Groome, Melanie T. Bijland, Kerrilyn R. Diener, Roberto Romero, Sarah A. Robertson
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Research Article Reproductive biology

Macrophages exert homeostatic actions in pregnancy to protect against preterm birth and fetal inflammatory injury

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Abstract

Macrophages are commonly thought to contribute to the pathophysiology of preterm labor by amplifying inflammation — but a protective role has not previously been considered to our knowledge. We hypothesized that given their antiinflammatory capability in early pregnancy, macrophages exert essential roles in maintenance of late gestation and that insufficient macrophages may predispose individuals to spontaneous preterm labor and adverse neonatal outcomes. Here, we showed that women with spontaneous preterm birth had reduced CD209+CD206+ expression in alternatively activated CD45+CD14+ICAM3– macrophages and increased TNF expression in proinflammatory CD45+CD14+CD80+HLA-DR+ macrophages in the uterine decidua at the materno-fetal interface. In Cd11bDTR/DTR mice, depletion of maternal CD11b+ myeloid cells caused preterm birth, neonatal death, and postnatal growth impairment, accompanied by uterine cytokine and leukocyte changes indicative of a proinflammatory response, while adoptive transfer of WT macrophages prevented preterm birth and partially rescued neonatal loss. In a model of intra-amniotic inflammation–induced preterm birth, macrophages polarized in vitro to an M2 phenotype showed superior capacity over nonpolarized macrophages to reduce uterine and fetal inflammation, prevent preterm birth, and improve neonatal survival. We conclude that macrophages exert a critical homeostatic regulatory role in late gestation and are implicated as a determinant of susceptibility to spontaneous preterm birth and fetal inflammatory injury.

Authors

Nardhy Gomez-Lopez, Valeria Garcia-Flores, Peck Yin Chin, Holly M. Groome, Melanie T. Bijland, Kerrilyn R. Diener, Roberto Romero, Sarah A. Robertson

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Figure 1

Specific subsets of proinflammatory and homeostatic macrophage subsets are differentially abundant at the materno-fetal interface of women with spontaneous preterm birth compared with term birth.

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Specific subsets of proinflammatory and homeostatic macrophage subsets a...
(A) Schematic representation of the materno-fetal interface, including the uterine decidua basalis and decidua parietalis. Cell suspensions were prepared from the decidual tissues, and macrophage subsets were analyzed by flow cytometry with markers CD14, CD80, HLA-DR, ICAM3, CD206, CD209, CD163, NRP-1, TNF, IL12, iNOS, and IL10, according to the gating strategy in Supplemental Figure 1. (B) Representative FACS plots of CD45+CD14+CD80+HLA-DR+ cells, considered proinflammatory macrophages, expressing TNF. (C) Representative FACS plots of CD45+CD14+ICAM3– cells, considered homeostatic macrophages, expressing CD206+CD209+. (D) Representative t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) plot of CD45+CD14+CD80+HLA-DR+ proinflammatory macrophages, color-coded to identify TNF+ cells from women with spontaneous preterm birth (red) and term birth (dark blue), and TNF– cells from women with spontaneous preterm birth (pink) and term birth (light blue). (E) Representative t-SNE plot of CD45+CD14+ICAM– homeostatic macrophages, color-coded to identify CD206+CD209+ cells from women with spontaneous preterm birth (red) and term birth (dark blue), and CD206–CD209– cells from women with spontaneous preterm birth (pink) and term birth (light blue). (F) Frequency of CD45+CD14+CD80+HLA-DR+ cells expressing TNF in the decidua basalis and decidua parietalis of women with term (n = 63–67) or spontaneous preterm (n = 23–24) birth. (G) Frequency of CD45+CD14+ICAM3– cells expressing CD206 and CD209 in the decidua basalis or the decidua parietalis of women with term (n = 66–68) or spontaneous preterm (n = 27–28) birth. Data are presented as mean and SEM. Symbols are values from individual women. Data were analyzed by Mann-Whitney U test. P values were considered significant when P was less than 0.05. Data on other macrophage subpopulations are shown in Supplemental Figure 2. Demographic and clinical characteristics of the study population are shown in Table 1.

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