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Decidual NK cells regulate key developmental processes at the human fetal-maternal interface
- Jacob Hanna1,
- Debra Goldman-Wohl2 na1,
- Yaron Hamani2,
- Inbal Avraham3,
- Caryn Greenfield2,
- Shira Natanson-Yaron2,
- Diana Prus4,
- Leonor Cohen-Daniel1,
- Tal I Arnon1,
- Irit Manaster1,
- Roi Gazit1,
- Vladimir Yutkin5,
- Daniel Benharroch6,
- Angel Porgador7,
- Eli Keshet3,
- Simcha Yagel2 &
- …
- Ofer Mandelboim1 na1
Nature Medicinevolume 12, pages1065–1074 (2006)Cite this article
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Abstract
Human CD56bright NK cells accumulate in the maternal decidua during pregnancy and are found in direct contact with fetal trophoblasts. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain the inability of NK cells to kill the semiallogeneic fetal cells. However, the actual functions of decidual NK (dNK) cells during pregnancy are mostly unknown. Here we show that dNK cells, but not peripheral blood–derived NK subsets, regulate trophoblast invasion bothin vitro andin vivo by production of the interleukin-8 and interferon-inducible protein–10 chemokines. Furthermore, dNK cells are potent secretors of an array of angiogenic factors and induce vascular growth in the decidua. Notably, such functions are regulated by specific interactions between dNK-activating and dNK-inhibitory receptors and their ligands, uniquely expressed at the fetal-maternal interface. The overall results support a 'peaceful' model for reproductive immunology, in which elements of innate immunity have been incorporated in a constructive manner to support reproductive tissue development.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank O. Wald, N. Stern, G. Cohen, G. Katz, T. Gonen-Gross and S. Cohen for assistance. We would like to also thank I. Ariel and A. Peled for discussion. O.M. is supported by research grants from the Israel Cancer Research Foundation, The Israel Science Foundation, European Commission (QLK2-CT-2002-011112) and the Israeli Cancer Research Institute. S.Y. is supported by a grant from the Office of the Chief Scientist, Israel Ministry of Health (5695). J.H. is supported by fellowships from the Foulkes Foundation and Israeli Ministry of Education.
Author information
Debra Goldman-Wohl and Ofer Mandelboim: These authors contributed equally to this work.
Authors and Affiliations
The Lautenberg Center for General and Tumor Immunology, The Hebrew University–Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, 91120, Israel
Jacob Hanna, Leonor Cohen-Daniel, Tal I Arnon, Irit Manaster, Roi Gazit & Ofer Mandelboim
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hadassah University Hospital–Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, 91120, Israel
Debra Goldman-Wohl, Yaron Hamani, Caryn Greenfield, Shira Natanson-Yaron & Simcha Yagel
Department of Molecular Biology, Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, 91120, Israel
Inbal Avraham & Eli Keshet
Department of Pathology, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem, 91120, Israel
Diana Prus
Department of Urology, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem, 91120, Israel
Vladimir Yutkin
Department of Pathology, Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva, 92865, Israel
Daniel Benharroch
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva, 92865, Israel
Angel Porgador
- Jacob Hanna
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- Debra Goldman-Wohl
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- Yaron Hamani
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- Inbal Avraham
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- Caryn Greenfield
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- Shira Natanson-Yaron
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- Diana Prus
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- Leonor Cohen-Daniel
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- Tal I Arnon
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- Irit Manaster
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- Roi Gazit
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- Vladimir Yutkin
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- Daniel Benharroch
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- Simcha Yagel
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Contributions
J.H. conceived the idea for this project, designed all experiments, performed NK cell isolations, gene arrays and allin vitro andin vivo functional experiments. D.G.-W., Y.H., C.G., S.N.-Y. and S.Y. provided human tissue samples, performed trophoblast isolation and chemokine receptor immunohistochemistry. I.A. and E.K. provided technical assistance with angiogenesis assays. T.I.A. and A.P. provided soluble NK receptors. D.B. and V.Y. developed a protocol of affinity histochemistry with NCR-Fc reagents. D.P. confirmed pathology results. L.C.-D., R.G. and I.M. provided technical assistance within vivo experiments. O.M. supervised the project, provided crucial ideas and helped with data interpretation. J.H. wrote the manuscript with O.M. and S.Y.
Corresponding authors
Correspondence toSimcha Yagel orOfer Mandelboim.
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The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Fig. 1
Chemokine receptor expression on human invasive trophoblasts. (PDF 57 kb)
Supplementary Fig. 2
Characterization of dNK clones for LIR and KIR expression. (PDF 62 kb)
Supplementary Table 1
Average normalized values obtained from genearray analysis on human dNK cells. (XLS 2779 kb)
Supplementary Table 2
Transcription profile of selected chemokines and angiogenic factors in dNK cells revealed by microarray analysis. (PDF 68 kb)
Supplementary Table 3
Semiquantative RT-PCR analysis of chemokines in human dNK cells. (PDF 79 kb)
Supplementary Table 4
Chemokine receptor transcription on HLA-G+ purified human invasive decidual trophoblasts. (PDF 56 kb)
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Hanna, J., Goldman-Wohl, D., Hamani, Y.et al. Decidual NK cells regulate key developmental processes at the human fetal-maternal interface.Nat Med12, 1065–1074 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1452
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