Figure 4. Defining distinct roles of the trophoblast subtypes at the gas exchange interface.
(A) Schematic showing the relative location of the cell types at the gas and nutrient exchange interface of the labyrinth – S-TGC, SynTI, SynTII, (sometimes referred to as trophoblast layer I, II, and III, respectively) and the fetal endothelium (top). Immunofluorescence staining resolving expression in each pair of neighboring cell types – Endothelial/SynTII, SynTII/SynTI, and SynTI/S-TGC in E12.5 mouse placenta sections. (B) Heatmap of all differentially expressed genes by log fold change in SynTI, SynTII, and S-TGC clusters. (C–E) Network diagrams showing the top 5 Gene Ontology (Biological Process) enriched in marker genes (adj. p-value<0.05, logFC >0.5) in each cluster (Yu G. 2018). Gene ontology categories are nodes and associated marker genes are annotated. Adjusted p-values for enrichment are listed in the table insets.