American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
ResearchBasic science: ObstetricsHypoxia regulates the expression of fatty acid–binding proteins in primary term human trophoblasts
Section snippets
Trophoblast isolation and culture
The procurement of human tissues for our studies was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Washington University School of Medicine. Placentas were obtained immediately after term uncomplicated singleton pregnancies and deliveries. Placental fragments measuring 0.125 cm3 were sharply dissected at a site located at half the placental radius from the lateral placental margin, at the middle of the placental depth, 8-10 mm from the placental basal plate.
Cytotrophoblasts were isolated by the
Results
We initially sought to identify the FABP subtypes that are expressed in term PHTs. Using PCR and appropriate RNA control samples, we found that FABP1, -3, -4, -5, and FABPpm are expressed in the term placenta and term PHTs (Figure 1, A). We also used RT-qPCR to examine the expression of FABP1, -3, -4, and FABPpm during the 72-hour culture period (Figure 1, B). Except for FABP1, the expression of all other FABPs that were detected in placenta trophoblasts was enhanced during the culture period (
Comment
We found that the term human placenta expresses several members of the FABP family of proteins, namely FABP1, -3, -4, -5, and FABPpm. These observations are consistent with previous reports that focused on selected FABPs.19, 20 Importantly, our data indicate that hypoxia enhances the expression of FABP1, -3, and -4 in PHTs. This increase is associated with the accumulation of lipid droplets in hypoxic trophoblasts, suggesting a role for these FABP subtypes in uptake or accumulation of lipids
Acknowledgments
We thank Elena Sadovsky and Eli Rimon for technical assistance and Lori Rideout for assistance during manuscript preparation. We also thank Mark Leibowitz from Ligand Pharmaceuticals for generously providing LG268.
References (25)
Placental regulation of fatty acid delivery and its effect on fetal growth—a review
Placenta
(2002)- et al.
Role of PAT proteins in lipid metabolism
Biochimie
(2005) - et al.
S3-12, adipophilin, and TIP47 package lipid in adipocytes
J Biol Chem
(2005) - et al.
Fatty acid-binding proteins—insights from genetic manipulations
Prog Lipid Res
(2004) - et al.
Hypoxia limits differentiation and up-regulates expression and activity of prostaglandin H synthase 2 in cultured trophoblast from term human placenta
Am J Obstet Gynecol
(1999) - et al.
Analysis of relative gene expression data using real-time quantitative PCR and the 2-DDCT method
Methods
(2001) - et al.
Evaluation of housekeeping genes in placental comparative expression studies
Placenta
(2005) - et al.
Effects of chronic hypoxia in vivo on the expression of human placental glucose transporters
Placenta
(2006) - et al.
Microarray-based identification of differentially expressed genes in hypoxic term human trophoblasts and in placental villi of pregnancies with growth restricted fetuses
Placenta
(2005) - et al.
Insulin and fatty acids regulate the expression of the fat droplet-associated protein adipophilin in primary human trophoblasts
Am J Obstet Gynecol
(2005)
Cited by (0)
This work was supported in part by National Institutes of Health Grant R01-ES11597 and R01-HD45675 (Y.S.).
Cite this article as: Biron-Shental T, Schaiff WT, Ratajczak CK, et al. Hypoxia regulates the expression of fatty acid–binding proteins in primary term human trophoblasts. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2007;197:516.e1-516.e6.
Reprints not available from the authors.