CASP9 and cytomegalovirus infection: We also observed a significant downregulation of cell death markers on trophoblasts exposed to CMV infection compared to no infection (Figure 5C), including decreased GZMA (31.24 vs. 73.34, p<0.0001), BCLXL (210.7 vs. 538.2, p<0.0001), p53 (164.1 vs. 434.2, p<0.0001), and cleaved caspase 9 (31.05 vs. 81.45, p<0.0001), respectively.