Figure 4.

Microenvironment profile of trophoblasts

(A) Z score hierarchical clustering heatmap visualization of trophoblast interactions with major immune cell lineages at first trimester, second trimester, and term. Orange/red indicates a higher amount of interactions and blue a lower amount of interactions than the mean of corrected microenvironment analysis frequency per row.

(B and C) Visualization of myeloid cell (red) and NK cell (magenta) interactions with trophoblasts (green) in (B) first trimester and (C) term decidua.

(D) Frequency of the six NK cell subclusters (of all immune cells and trophoblasts) that are within the microenvironment of trophoblasts. A Friedman test of first trimester samples indicates a differential distribution of the subclusters in the microenvironment of trophoblasts (p<0.001). A Kruskal-Wallis test of the three trimesters and subcluster dNK1a shows a significant decrease of dNK1a cells in the microenvironment of trophoblasts (Kruskal-Wallis p = 0.020; multiple comparisons first trimester versus term p = 0.033).

(E) Frequency of the six myeloid subclusters (within both immune cell and trophoblast compartment) that are within the microenvironment of trophoblasts. A Friedman test of first trimester samples indicates a differential distribution of the subclusters in the microenvironment of trophoblasts (p<0.001), similarly for second trimester (p = 0.014), but not for term (p = 0.115). A Kruskal-Wallis test of the three trimesters and subcluster dMØ4 showed a significant decrease of dMØ4 cells in the microenvironment of trophoblasts (Kruskal-Wallis p = 0.014; multiple comparisons first trimester versus term p = 0.024). (B and C) Data are represented as medians with IQR.