The Role of Macrophages and PI3K in early Pregnancy

The immune system is critically involved in the establishment and maintenance of successful pregnancy. Therein, innate immune cells are critically involved in successful implantation and placentation. Dysregulation of aforementioned processes often result in pregnancy complications like recurrent pregnancy loss and miscarriage posing a substantial medical and psychological burden. Hence, it is of paramount importance to study and unravel the pivotal role of the immune system during early pregnancy events in health and disease. The phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K) signaling pathway is as a central regulator of metabolism and cell survival, regulating key immune cell functions of innate immune cells by metabolic rewiring, skewing polarization states or affecting cell migration. Thus, we postulate that PI3K plays a central role in regulating innate immune cell functions and metabolism at the maternal-fetal interface. To shed light on this, we plan to characterize the immune cell- as well as immunometabolic- landscape during early pregnancy by sophisticated molecular methods. We anticipate that these results will provide a deeper insight into innate immune cell dynamics and functions during early pregnancy.