The human placental sexome differs between trophoblast epithelium and villous vessel endothelium

As susceptibility to many adult disorders originates in utero, we here hypothesized that fetal sex influences gene expression in placental cells and produces functional differences in human placentas. We found that fetal sex differentially affects gene expression in a cell-phenotype dependent manner among all four placental cell-phenotypes studied: cytotrophoblasts, syncytiotrophoblasts, arterial endothelial cells and venous endothelial cells. The markedly enriched pathways in males were identified to be signaling pathways for graft-versus-host disease as well as the immune and inflammatory systems, both supporting the hypothesis that there is reduced maternal-fetal compatibility for male fetuses.

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Cvitic S, Longtine MS, Hackl H, Wagner K, Nelson MD, Desoye G, Hiden U