I would be very interested in profiling T cells during pregnancy.
The idea is to profile T cells in different tissues (placenta, uterus, livers, guts, spleens, meninges, etc.) in pregnant mice and compare them to those in the equivalent tissues (except for placenta) of non-pregnant virgin females. A growing number of studies (including those from us) suggest that a relatively short time window of pregnancy (e.g., 21 days in mice and 9 months in humans) can have huge impacts on immune cells, particularly T cells. Pregnant women are generally more susceptible to various infections (including respiratory viral infections), and developing fetuses are greatly influenced by the maternal immune system. It is imperative to understand how pregnancy shapes T cell responses and whether their altered function persists or desists following delivery. We want to profile T cells, if possible, from different tissues before, during, and after pregnancy. Ideas and suggestions are welcome.
I second Jun on this! Thanks, Soo Hyun. if you are interested in participating, don't hesitate to submit a proposal (link) :-)
Thank you very much for your insightful suggestion, which is very helpful in designing experiments.
If I may add, including the thymus would be great as well.. it undergoes involution during pregnancy with a block in the maturation of immature T cell populations. We also do not have a clear understanding of the T cell receptor sequencing of regulatory T cell population at the maternal fetal interface.
Hi David, we could start with three-time points during pregnancy (early, mid and late gestation). And perhaps add a time point after delivery? Gut and splenic T cells would be good places to start. But perhaps the placenta as well? (Then it will be more than ten conditions.) Yes, TCRseq + Clonal expansion would be a great idea. Happy to chat more!!
Thanks for the suggestion! Certainly a fascinating topic. What would be the most relevant tissues and timepoint to compare virgin and pregnant mice? Any clonal expansion we could identify with the TCR sequencing? As a first experiment, we could sequence ~50,000 cells across ten conditions. Looking forward to describing pregnancy-specific T cells states!