Single-cell reconstruction of the early maternal–fetal interface in humans

Roser Vento-Tormo, Mirjana Efremova, Rachel A. Botting, Margherita Y. Turco, Miquel Vento-Tormo, Kerstin B. Meyer, Jong-Eun Park, Emily Stephenson, Krzysztof Polański, Angela Goncalves, Lucy Gardner, Staffan Holmqvist, Johan Henriksson, Angela Zou, Andrew M. Sharkey, Ben Millar, Barbara Innes, Laura Wood, Anna Wilbrey-Clark, Rebecca P. Payne, Martin A. Ivarsson, Steve Lisgo, Andrew Filby, David H. Rowitch, Judith N. Bulmer, Gavin J. Wright, Michael J. T. Stubbington, Muzlifah Haniffa, Ashley Moffett, Sarah A. Teichmann

Abstract

During early human pregnancy the uterine mucosa transforms into the decidua, into which the fetal placenta implants and where placental trophoblast cells intermingle and communicate with maternal cells. Trophoblast–decidual interactions underlie common diseases of pregnancy, including pre-eclampsia and stillbirth. Here we profile the transcriptomes of about 70,000 single cells from first-trimester placentas with matched maternal blood and decidual cells. The cellular composition of human decidua reveals subsets of perivascular and stromal cells that are located in distinct decidual layers. There are three major subsets of decidual natural killer cells that have distinctive immunomodulatory and chemokine profiles. We develop a repository of ligand–receptor complexes and a statistical tool to predict the cell-type specificity of cell–cell communication via these molecular interactions. Our data identify many regulatory interactions that prevent harmful innate or adaptive immune responses in this environment. Our single-cell atlas of the maternal–fetal interface reveals the cellular organization of the decidua and placenta, and the interactions that are critical for placentation and reproductive success.

Datasets

1. Pregnant Uterus (All)
Metadata
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EFO:000989964734 cells
EFO:00089315591 cells
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Single-cell reconstruction of the early maternal–fetal interface in humans

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Source data

https://cellxgene.cziscience.com/collections/a9254216-6cd8-4186-b32c-349363777584

Alias names

E-MTAB-6701, E-MTAB-6678, E-MTAB-7304, PMID30429548, PMC7612850

Cite this study

Vento-Tormo, R., Efremova, M., Botting, R.A., Turco, M.Y., Vento-Tormo, M., Meyer, K.B., Park, J.E., Stephenson, E., Polański, K., Goncalves, A. and Gardner, L., 2018. Single-cell reconstruction of the early maternal–fetal interface in humans. Nature, 563(7731), pp.347-353. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0698-6