Human Decidual NK Cells from Gravid Uteri and NK Cells from Cycling Endometrium are Distinct NK Cell Subsets

Accepted 5 January 2010. published online 22 February 2010.

Abstract

Human NK cells from the decidua basalis of gravid uteri and from the cycling endometrium of women undergoing hysterectomy were isolated and compared by gene expression profiling using Affymetrix microarrays with probes representing ∼47,400 transcripts. Substantial differences indicate that these two types of NK cells represent distinct subsets.

Keywords: NK cell, Pregnancy, Endometrium, Decidua, Microarray, Gene expression profiling

a Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

b Department of Medicine, Division of Molecular and Vascular Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

c Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, NH, USA

d Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

e Department of Physiology, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, NH, USA

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 617 495 2733.

PII: S0143-4004(10)00019-6

doi:10.1016/j.placenta.2010.01.003

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