Fig. 6

Luminally infused murine mesenchymal stromal cells (mMSC) interacting with neutrophils. Diestrus virgin mice were challenged with E. coli bacteria and treated 6 h later with mMSC transduced with the NF-kB/venus reporter system. Both challenge and treatment were applied by transcervical infusion. Mice were sacrificed 24 h after challenge and uterus tissue sections were prepared from PFA-fixed cryo blocks. mMSC (green) are visible in both ipsilateral and contralateral horns (white arrows in A and B, respectively). Representative images of fluorescence staining using phalloidin (white), anti-murine CD45 antibodies (red in E–F) and DAPI (blue in C). Annotated structural elements include; lumen (L), endometrial stroma (ES), blood vessels (BV), inner muscles (IM), outer muscles (OM) and broad ligament (BL). mMSC assume variable morphologies from spindle-shaped to large globular (C-D) interacting with luminal neutrophils (CD45⁺ cells in E–F). Scale bars; 200 µm (A-B), 20 µm (C-D), 50 µm (E–F)