Fig. 1

Drug screening identified 32 epigenetic compounds that promote trophoblast syncytialization. A Scatter plot displaying the effects of epigenetic drugs on the syncytialization process of BeWo cells. The y-axis and x-axis show the relative mRNA levels of two STB markers after administration of each drug normalized against DMSO control. Each dot represents an individual drug. B A list of 32 drugs is shown with their relative mRNA levels of two STB markers and targets. C An enrichment analysis of the targets of the 32 drugs based on the SMART database. D STRING analysis of all the targets of the 32 drugs based on the protein–protein interaction networks, highlighting the essential role of KMT2A (MLL1) with many connecting nodes among the gene targets promoting trophoblast syncytialization. STB, syncytiotrophoblast; DMSO, dimethyl sulfoxide; MLL1, mixed lineage leukemia 1; KMT2A, lysine methyltransferase 2A