Macrophage polarization, regulated appropriately, may play important roles in successful pregnancy. In the face of the vital roles of decidua macrophages in pregnancy, it is insufficient to recognize the trigger of macrophage differentiation and polarization. We aimed to explore the link between the NLRP7 gene and macrophage polarization in human deciduas. Here, we enrolled the endometrial tissues from eight pregnant women in the first trimester. We found that NLRP7 was abundant in endometrial tissues and that NLRP7 was expressed in decidual macrophages of the first-trimester pregnancy. NLRP7 was predominately expressed in the decidual M2 macrophages, as compared with the M1 macrophages. Furthermore, our results suggest that NLRP7 is associated with decidual macrophage differentiation. NLRP7 over-expression suppresses the expression of M1 markers and enhances the expression of the M2 markers. Considering that NLRP7 relates to decidualization and macrophage differentiation, we propose that NLRP7 is a primate-specific multitasking gene to maintain endometrial hemostasis and reproductive success. This finding may pave the way for therapies of pathological pregnancies.
Keywords: NLRP7; decidua; macrophage; polarization.