Fig. 2

Transcriptional regulation of pEXO-educated monocytes. Monocytes were treated with 20 μg/ml pEXO for 24 h and subject to mRNA sequencing. A Volcano plot of differential expressed genes (DEGs, fold change > 16, Qvalue < 0.001) in pEXO-educated monocytes. Dots represent genes, colored as: not significant (NS, dark grey); UP (red) with log2FC ≥ 4.0 and adjusted p ≤ 0.001; DOWN (blue) with log2FC ≤ − 4.0 and adjusted p ≤ 0.001. p values are based on a two-tailed Wald test and adjusted via the Benjamini–Hochberg procedure. B GO analysis of up-regulated genes. C GO analysis of down-regulated genes. D Hallmark Gene Set enrichment analysis of pEXO-educated monocytes showing induction of gene sets regulating IL-10, IL-4 and IL-13 signaling in pEXO-educated monocytes. E Flow cytometry analysis of CD14⁺HLA-DR/DM/DP^−/low monocytes from pregnant women and non-pregnant control. N = 11, each dot represents one sample. Non-p: non-pregnant; P: pregnant. F The expression of MDSC marker, SLC27A2, TGFB1, CD14, S100A9, IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-10, IL-6, CD274, HIF-1A, STAT3, VEGF-A and ARG2 in pEXO-educated monocytes. G Reduction of HLA-DR at mRNA level in pEXO-educated monocyte (n = 8). Data are expressed as mean ± SD (n = 4), *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001 compared to the control group