CXCR4⁺ Dendritic cells promote angiogenesis during embryo implantation in mice

Early pregnancy is characterized by decidual adaption to the developing embryo involving angiogenesis and vascular growth. Failure of decidual vascular expansion is linked to diseases of pregnancy. Dendritic cells (DC) have been associated with vascular growth during early gestation, though it is unknown whether their capacity to modulate angiogenesis is ubiquitous to all DC subsets. Here, we show that DC normally found associated with the decidual vasculature co-express the C–X–C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4). In addition, we demonstrate that impaired homing of CXCR4⁺DC during early gestation provoked a disorganized decidual vasculature with impaired spiral artery remodeling later in gestation. In contrast, adoptive transfer experiments provided evidence that CXCR4⁺DC are able to rescue early pregnancy by normalizing decidual vascular growth and delivery of pro-angiogenic factors, which results in adequate remodeling of the spiral arteries during placental development. Taken together, our results indicate an important role of CXCR4⁺DC in the regulation of decidual angiogenesis and highlight the importance of the CXCL12/CXCR4 pathway during this process, suggesting that this may represent a key pathway to evaluate during pregnancy pathologies associated with impaired vascular expansion.