Gene expression profile of decidual macrophages and different in vitro M1 and M2 macrophage populations

Uterine (decidual) macrophages (M) are believed to play an important role in fetal tolerance during pregnancy, but the factors that regulate them are not known. In this study we investigated the potential role of several factors (M-CSF, GM-CSF, IL-4/13, IL-10, progesterone and estradiol) to drive the differentiation and polarization of human decidual M by using an in vitro M differentiation model. To estimate the similarity of the in vitro differentiated M with decidual M, we used the present gene expression array. The array consisted of 420 M-related genes, including 100 genes highly regulated in decidual M based on the gene expression profile previously reported (Gustafsson et al, 2008, PLoS ONE. 3(4): e2078). The analysis focused on the 100 decidual M-associated genes. Comparative expression analysis of CD14+ cells isolated from blood (3 samples) or decidua (3 samples) from pregnant women, CD14+ cells isolated from non-pregnant women (14 samples) and different types of in vitro-generated macrophages (55 samples). A total of 75 samples were anlayzed.