Journal: bioRxiv

Article Title: Microbiota-dependent IFN-L controls uterine and placental immunity

doi: 10.64898/2026.01.27.701820

Figure Lengend Snippet: (A) Experimental schematic depicting isotype control (Iso) and a-IFN-L blocking antibody treatment (a-IFN-L) following progesterone administration in SPF or GF mice. (B) Quantification of uterine type 17 lymphoid cells shown as fold change in absolute cell number in progesterone treated SPF animals treated with a-IFN-L relative to Iso treated animals. (C, D) Quantification of absolute cell number of uterine (C) RORγT + γδT cells and (D) Th17 cells. (E) Experimental schematic showing progesterone treatment of wild type (WT) littermate control or IFN-L receptor (IFNLR) knock out mice, followed by sorting of EpCam + and CD45 + cells for single cell RNA sequencing. (F) UMAP projection showing uterine cells sorted using an EpCam gate. (G) Expression of the ISGs Ifi27l2a, Irf7, Isg15, Oas2, Oasl2 across EpCam + clusters from WT and IFNLR KO mice. (H) Volcano plot displaying differentially expressed genes from uterine luminal epithelial cells. (I) Top enriched GO term pathways for genes downregulated in uterine luminal epithelial cells from IFNLR KO mice, with Log 2 fold change values shown for differentially expressed genes in each highlighted pathway. (J) Working model. (B-D) Each dot represents an individual tissue from three biological replicates with mean with ± SEM. Significance determined by an unpaired Student’s t-test. * denote p-val <0.05 ** denote p-val <0.01.

Article Snippet: Mice were also injected intraperitoneally with 2.25 mg/kg of anti-mouse IFN-L-2/3 antibody (MAB17892, R&D Systems) or rat IgG 2b isotype control antibody (clone MAB0061, R&D systems) as previously published , , .

Techniques: Control, Blocking Assay, Knock-Out, RNA Sequencing, Expressing

Journal: bioRxiv

Article Title: Microbiota-dependent IFN-L controls uterine and placental immunity

doi: 10.64898/2026.01.27.701820

Figure Lengend Snippet: (A) Quantification of uterine ILC3 absolute cell number in SPF and GF animals treated with progesterone and Iso or a-IFN-L. Each dot represents an individual tissue from three biological replicates with mean ± SEM. Significance was determined by an unpaired Student’s t-test. (B) UMAP projection of CD45 + cells sorted from WT and IFNLR KO uteri. (C) Dot plot showing expression of Ifnar1 or Ifnlr in WT cells from the EpCam + and CD45 + library. (D, E) Dot plot showing marker gene expression for each cell type from the (D) EpCam + or (E) CD45 + library.

Article Snippet: Mice were also injected intraperitoneally with 2.25 mg/kg of anti-mouse IFN-L-2/3 antibody (MAB17892, R&D Systems) or rat IgG 2b isotype control antibody (clone MAB0061, R&D systems) as previously published , , .

Techniques: Expressing, Marker, Gene Expression

Journal: bioRxiv

Article Title: Microbiota-dependent IFN-L controls uterine and placental immunity

doi: 10.64898/2026.01.27.701820

Figure Lengend Snippet: (A) Experimental schematic showing Iso or a-IFN-L treatment before and throughout intravaginal GBS colonization of nulliparous animals. (B-D) Quantification of GBS counts in (B) vaginal lavages from 1-6 dpa, (C) vaginal and (D) uterine tissue at 6 dpa. (E) Experimental schematic showing Iso or a-IFN-L treatment before and throughout intravaginal GBS infection of timed pregnant dams. (F) Number of implantation sites per litter in Iso or a-IFN-L treated GBS-infected pregnant dams. (G) Quantification of the fetus-to-placenta weight ratio in Iso or a-IFN-L treated GBS-infected pregnant dams at gd16.5. (H) Quantification of GBS counts in indicated tissues at 3 dpi. (I) Quantification of GBS counts in fetal liver at 3 dpi. (J) Graphical representation of fetal outcomes found in mock or GBS-infected Iso or a-IFN-L treated pregnant dams at gd16.5. (K) Working model. (B) Significance was determined by two-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparison test with mean ± SEM from three biological replicates. (C, D, G, H, I) Each dot represents an individual tissue from at least three biological replicates with mean ± SEM. (F) Each dot represents the total number of implantation sites per individual dam from at least three biological replicates with mean ± SEM. (C, D, F-I) Significance determined by an unpaired Student’s t-test. *** denote p-val<0.001, **** denote p-val<0.0001.

Article Snippet: Mice were also injected intraperitoneally with 2.25 mg/kg of anti-mouse IFN-L-2/3 antibody (MAB17892, R&D Systems) or rat IgG 2b isotype control antibody (clone MAB0061, R&D systems) as previously published , , .

Techniques: Infection, Comparison

Journal: bioRxiv

Article Title: Microbiota-dependent IFN-L controls uterine and placental immunity

doi: 10.64898/2026.01.27.701820

Figure Lengend Snippet: (A) Experimental schematic showing Iso or a-IFN-L neutralizing antibody treatment before and throughout intravaginal GBS infection of timed pregnant dams. Maternal and neonatal outcomes were monitored through perinatal day 11. (B) Survival curve displaying maternal survival following GBS infection during pregnancy and through the first 11 days of the perinatal period. (C) Quantification of vaginal GBS burden in dams at perinatal day 11. (D) Quantification of litter size per individual dam at postnatal day 5. (E) Quantification of neonatal weight at postnatal day 5, 9 and 11. (F) Quantification of GBS CFU/mL in the neonatal liver, lung, brain, and intestine at postnatal day 11. Each dot represents an individual tissue with mean ± SEM. (G) Proportion of neonatal livers, lungs, brains, and intestines positive for GBS at postnatal day 11. (B-G) Three independent replicates were performed. (B) A log-rank test was performed to determine statistical significance. (C, F, G) An unpaired Student’s t-test was performed to determine statistical significance. (D) A one-way ANOVA with multiple comparisons was performed to determine statistical significance. (E) A two-way ANOVA with multiple comparisons was performed to determine statistical significance. *denote p-val <0.05.

Article Snippet: Mice were also injected intraperitoneally with 2.25 mg/kg of anti-mouse IFN-L-2/3 antibody (MAB17892, R&D Systems) or rat IgG 2b isotype control antibody (clone MAB0061, R&D systems) as previously published , , .

Techniques: Infection