Serial intravascular labeling resolves dynamic decidual NK residency and gestational remodeling toward T-bet-Low states

Pregnancy in virgin mice reshapes decidual NK-cell residency and remodeling, with T-bet shifting progressively from current expression toward ex-T-bet and non-fate-mapped Eomes states.

• Why it matters: It remains unclear how vascular trafficking, tissue residency, proliferation, and apoptosis-associated activity are coordinated to build and sustain the dNK population across gestation.
• What they did: Using serial intravascular labeling (SIVL) with flow cytometry, BrdU incorporation, active caspase-3 detection, spatial imaging, and Tbx21 fate mapping, the authors tracked NK-cell dynamics across gestation.
• The result: dNK composition and vascular-accessibility distribution changed with pregnancy, trafficking marker scores formed continuous gradients, early pregnancy showed peak BrdU and active caspase-3, and T-bet-low states preferentially maintained proliferation at mid-gestation.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.