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Vicki Plaks, Tal Birnberg, Tamara Berkutzki, Shay Sela, Adi BenYashar, Vyacheslav Kalchenko, Gil Mor, Eli Keshet, Nava Dekel, Michal Neeman, Steffen Jung
Published in Volume 118, Issue 12
J Clin Invest. 2008; 118(12):3954–3965 doi:10.1172/JCI36682
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Figure 8
Evidence for a direct role for uDCs in decidual angiogenesis by regulating vascular maturation.

(A) Flow cytometry analysis of decidual cells (All) sorted for uNKs and for uDCs. (B) Semiquantitative RT-PCR for sFlt1 of the sorted cells in A. (C) Immunostaining for sFlt1 (brown) of control versus uDC-depleted (DTx) E5.5 ISs. Note that in the control ISs, sFlt1 staining is most abundant in the outer decidual rim, which is the localization of uDCs and also the localization of α-SMA–positive mature vessels (Figure 7H). In uDC-depleted deciduae, the sFlt1 staining is absent. Decidual tissue is circled. (D) Quantification of sFlt1 staining in uDC-depleted IS is shown as percentage of control (DTx: n = 2 mice, n = 3 ISs; control: n = 2 mice, n = 3 ISs; *P = 0.0035). Data quantification was performed on the whole IS (not only the decidua) to avoid bias. (E) Quantifications of sFlt1 distribution in the decidua. Radius of IS center, 240 μm; middle rim, 350 μm; outer rim, 240 μm. Note that the percentage of cells in the outer rim is significantly higher than that in the middle (P = 0.0012) and center (P = 0.0018). (F) Semiquantitative RT-PCR for TGF-β1 of the sorted cells in A. The bands were run on the same gel at the same time but were not contiguous. (G) Semiquantitative RT-PCR for TGF-β1 of uDC-depleted and control IS and (H) quantitative analysis of 3 different experiments. P < 0.05.