Human-Induced CD49a NK Cells Promote Fetal Growth

Overview

Journal Front Immunol

Specialty Allergy & Immunology

Date 2022 Feb 21

PMID 35185911

Authors

Xianghui Du

Huaiping Zhu

Defeng Jiao

Zhigang Nian

Jinghe Zhang

Yonggang Zhou

Xiaohu Zheng

Xianhong Tong

Haiming Wei

Binqing Fu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

CD49a natural killer (NK) cells play a critical role in promoting fetal development and maintaining immune tolerance at the maternal-fetal interface during the early stages of pregnancy. However, given their residency in human tissue, thorough studies and clinical applications are difficult to perform. It is still unclear as to how functional human CD49a NK cells can be induced to benefit pregnancy outcomes. In this study, we established three no-feeder cell induction systems to induce human CD49a NK cells from umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), bone marrow HSCs, and peripheral blood NK cells . These induced NK cells (iNKs) from three cell induction systems display high levels of CD49a, CD9, CD39, CD151 expression, low levels of CD16 expression, and no obvious cytotoxic capability. They are phenotypically and functionally similar to decidual NK cells. Furthermore, these iNKs display a high expression of growth-promoting factors and proangiogenic factors and can promote fetal growth and improve uterine artery blood flow in a murine pregnancy model . This research demonstrates the ability of human-induced CD49a NK cells to promote fetal growth three cell induction systems, which could eventually be used to treat patients experiencing adverse pregnancy outcomes.

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