Human Sample

Fresh umbilical cord blood, bone marrow, and decidual samples were obtained at the First Affiliated Hospital of the University of Science and Technology of China (Hefei, China). Umbilical cord blood was collected in heparin-coated collection bags from healthy donors delivering at term (maternal age range: 21-36 years). Bone marrow samples were obtained from patients with diagnostic bone marrow puncture, whose clinical diagnoses shown their HSCs having no appreciable functional difference with healthy people. First-trimester decidual samples (5-9 weeks) were obtained from voluntarily-terminated pregnancies (age range: 22-40 years). The terminations were for reasons unrelated to the pathology of pregnancy and fetal abnormality. Normal peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were obtained at the Blood Center of Anhui Province (Hefei, China). Informed consent was obtained from each donor. All human samples used in the present study were obtained under the approval of the Ethics Committee of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTCEC201800001; Hefei, China).