Fig. 3

Schematic representation of the pre-defined areas for the quantification of lymphocytes within the vascular wall of spiral arteries. Examples of the applied area for a decidual spiral artery section with a non-remodeled muscular artery stained for CD3. The area surrounded by the blue line represents the vascular wall, from the luminal surface to the decidual border of the artery. The blue dots represent the nuclei of endovascular lining cells, and their number was counted. The lymphocyte count within the vascular wall was measured, and lymphocyte density was calculated as lymphocytes per endovascular lining cell