Primitive haematopoiesis in the human placenta gives rise to macrophages with epigenetically silenced HLA-DR

Abstract

The generation of primitive macrophages remains a poorly understood process in humans. Here, the authors identify placental erythro-myeloid progenitors that give rise to foetal macrophages in the early human placenta and demonstrate that epigenetic silencing of the class II transactivator leads to downregulation of HLA-DR in these cells.