Isolation of single cells from human uterus in the third trimester of pregnancy: myometrium, decidua, amnion and chorion

During pregnancy, interactions between uterine immune cells and cells of the surrounding reproductive tissues are thought to be vital for regulating labour. The mechanism that specifically initiates spontaneous labour has not been determined, but distinct changes in uterine immune cell populations and their activation status have been observed during labour at term gestation. To understand the regulation of human labour by the immune system, the ability to isolate both immune cells and non-immune cells from the uterus is required. Here, we describe protocols developed in our laboratory to isolate single cells from uterine tissues, which preserve both immune and non-immune cell populations for further analysis. We provide detailed methods for isolating immune and non-immune cells from human myometrium, chorion, amnion and decidua, together with representative flow cytometry analysis of isolated cell populations present. The protocols can be completed in tandem and take approximately 4–5 h, resulting in single-cell suspensions that contain viable leucocytes, and non-immune cells in sufficient numbers for single-cell analysis approaches such as flow cytometry and single cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq).