Effect of ELF3 and NLRP7 depletion on gene expression in JEG-3 cells

The distinct Class I MHC expression pattern in extravillous trophoblasts (EVT) endows them with immune-tolerant properties that enable successful pregnancy. Notwithstanding, it remains elusive how this process is elaborately regulated. Previously, we identified ELF3 as a transcription factor that governs high level HLA-C expression in EVT. In this study, we found that ELF3 also binds to the enhancer region of two NLR genes, NLRP2 and NLRP7, transactivating NLRP7 expression while suppressing expression of NLRP2. We confirmed that NLRP2 suppresses HLA-C expression while in this study we described a novel role for NLRP7 promoting HLA-C expression in trophoblasts. These two NLR genes, highly expressed in trophoblasts, are thus fine-tuned by ELF3 and enable proper expression of HLA-C in trophoblasts. Overall design: To investigate the role of ELF3 and NLRP7 in regulating HLA-C expression in JEG-3 cells, we generated ELF3 and NLRP7 knockout JEG-3 cell lines. We then performed comparative gene expression analysis of WT and ELF3 or NLRP7 knockout cells