Placental Macrophages Demonstrate Sex-Specific Response to Intrauterine Inflammation and May Serve as a Marker of Perinatal Neuroinflammation

•The polarization of placental macrophages changes following immune activation in placenta exposed to intrauterine inflammation.•A strong correlation exists between placental macrophage infiltration following intrauterine inflammation and microglia activation in the fetal brain.•Hofbauer cell activation following intrauterine inflammation leads to a sex-specific effect whereby males were more vulnerable to early inflammatory insult.