Single-cell Atlas of Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells from Pregnant Women

Overview

Journal Clin Transl Med

Publisher Wiley

Specialty General Medicine

Date 2022 May 6

PMID 35522918

Authors

Dongsheng Chen

Wei Wang

Linlin Wu

Langchao Liang

Shiyou Wang

Yunfeng Cheng

Tongda Zhang

Chaochao Chai

Qiuhong Luo

Chengcheng Sun

Wandong Zhao

Zhiyuan Lv

Ya Gao

Xiaoxia Wu

Ning Sun

Yiwei Zhang

Jing Zhang

Yixuan Chen

Jianing Tong

Xiangdong Wang

Yong Bai

Chaoyang Sun

Xin Jin

Jianmin Niu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: During pregnancy, mother-child interactions trigger a variety of subtle changes in the maternal body, which may be reflected in the status of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Although these cells are easy to access and monitor, a PBMC atlas for pregnant women has not yet been constructed.

Methods: We applied single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to profile 198,356 PBMCs derived from 136 pregnant women (gestation weeks 6 to 40) and a control cohort. We also used scRNA-seq data to establish a transcriptomic clock and thereby predicted the gestational age of normal pregnancy.

Results: We identified reconfiguration of the peripheral immune cell phenotype during pregnancy, including interferon-stimulated gene upregulation, activation of RNA splicing-related pathways and immune activity of cell subpopulations. We also developed a cell-type-specific model to predict gestational age of normal pregnancy.

Conclusions: We constructed a single-cell atlas of PBMCs in pregnant women spanning the entire gestation period, which should help improve our understanding of PBMC composition turnover in pregnant women.

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