Figures
Adult bone marrow progenitors become decidual cells and contribute to embryo implantation and pregnancy
Decidua is a transient uterine tissue in mammals that is essential for pregnancy and is infiltrated by many immune cells that promote pregnancy. Adult bone marrow-derived cells differentiate into rare populations of nonhematopoietic endometrial cells in the uterus, but it is unknown whether they become nonhematopoietic decidual cells and contribute functionally to pregnancy. This study by Tal et al shows that pregnancy mobilizes mesenchymal stem cells into the blood stream and that pregnancy induces considerable recruitment of adult bone marrow-derived cells to decidua, where some differentiate into nonhematopoietic prolactin-expressing decidual cells and play an important role in decidualization and pregnancy. The image shows an immunofluorescent section of a pregnant mouse uterus on embryonic day E9.5, showing the distribution of bone marrow-derived cells, which are labeled with green fluorescent protein (green); cell nuclei are labeled with DAPI (blue).
Image Credit: Reshef Tal (2019)
Citation: (2019) PLoS Biology Issue Image | Vol. 17(9) October 2019. PLoS Biol 17(9): ev17.i09. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pbio.v17.i09
Published: October 1, 2019
Copyright: © 2019 . This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Decidua is a transient uterine tissue in mammals that is essential for pregnancy and is infiltrated by many immune cells that promote pregnancy. Adult bone marrow-derived cells differentiate into rare populations of nonhematopoietic endometrial cells in the uterus, but it is unknown whether they become nonhematopoietic decidual cells and contribute functionally to pregnancy. This study by Tal et al shows that pregnancy mobilizes mesenchymal stem cells into the blood stream and that pregnancy induces considerable recruitment of adult bone marrow-derived cells to decidua, where some differentiate into nonhematopoietic prolactin-expressing decidual cells and play an important role in decidualization and pregnancy. The image shows an immunofluorescent section of a pregnant mouse uterus on embryonic day E9.5, showing the distribution of bone marrow-derived cells, which are labeled with green fluorescent protein (green); cell nuclei are labeled with DAPI (blue).
Image Credit: Reshef Tal (2019)