Here is the link to the article.
Years of projects sometimes miraculously get published in short intervals together! This is work led by @Kazunori Hoshino’s group at UConn, where they have developed this remarkable technique to measure tissue viscoelastic properties at single cell resolution in 3D.
We used it to test how the human endometrial cells change their mechanics in anticipation of embryo implantation. They become stiffer, but amazingly, when cells from placenta interact with them, they reverse this stiffening.
There is what is called a “genetic conflict” at the interface where placenta and endometrium interact. Their objectives may actually differ. Overall, we are developing an idea that the mother’s endometrium prepares defenses against the invading placenta, but the wily placenta sometimes “molecularly manipulates” the endometrium to let it invade.
This constant loving struggle with the child starts way back in the uterus
Congratulations to all the authors and Hoshino lab for leading this work: Here is the article.