Corresponding Author: E.V. Mashkina, Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia Email: [email protected] Abstract: Oxygen-regulated genes expression has important role in preimplantation embryonic metabolism regulation. Hypoxia Inducible Factor (HIF) regulated by hypoxia oxygen tension is crucial for placenta development. But the data about its role in spontaneous abortion is very poor. T...

Human decidua and decidualized endometrial cells produce prolactin (PRL). Several growth factors and cytokines have been shown to regulate decidual PRL release, but a specific PRL-releasing substance remains to be characterized. Prolactin-releasing peptide (PrRP) is a peptide isolated from the brain and distinguished by its potent and specific stimulation of PRL release by cultured pituitary ce...

In normal human pregnancy, invasion of the uterus and its arterial system by cytotrophoblasts extends through the entire decidua and the adjacent third of the myometrium. Our previous work showed that during the first trimester of pregnancy, invasion is accompanied by a marked change in the expression of cell adhesion molecules by invasive cytotrophoblasts. In the pregnancy disorder preeclampsi...

Listeria monocytogenes is an important cause of maternal-fetal infections and serves as a model organism to study these important but poorly understood events. L. monocytogenes can infect non-phagocytic cells by two means: direct invasion and cell-to-cell spread. The relative contribution of each method to placental infection is controversial, as is the anatomical site of invasion. Here, we rep...

Membrane-type 1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) in endometrium and decidua may greatly affect attachment of the embryo to the epithelium, invasion of the trophoblast into the stroma, and extracellular matrix remodelling in the endometrium and decidua. We investigated the expression of this enzyme in normally cycling endometrium and in decidua associated with normal and tubal pregnancies at b...

During the first trimester of pregnancy fetal trophoblasts invade the maternal decidua, thereby remodeling the maternal spiral arteries. This process of trophoblast invasion is very similar to cancer cell invasion, with multiple signaling pathways shared between the two. Pregnancy-related diseases, e.g., pre-eclampsia, and cancer metastasis start with a decrease or increase in cellular invasion...

Extravillous trophoblasts (EVTs) play a central role in educating maternal leukocytes, endometrial stromal and endothelial cells to generate a receptive decidual microenvironment tailored to accept the semi-allogeneic fetus. HLA-G, a non-classical HLA class I molecule endowed with immune-regulatory functions, is primarily expressed on EVTs lining the placenta and on the naturally occurring tole...

Pregnancy induces uterine spiral arteries to remodel into dilated uteroplacental vessels by an unknown mechanism called "physiological change." In women who develop preeclampsia, however, many spiral arteries remain unchanged or develop medial hyperplasia and atherosis. We recently demonstrated that angiotensinogen is expressed by remodeling spiral arteries in first-trimester decidua. We hypoth...

The cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for pregnancy-related disorders remain unclear. We investigated the feasibility of using placenta-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) as a tool to study such pregnancy-related disorders. We isolated and expanded adequate numbers of cells with characteristic features of MSCs from the chorionic plate (CP-MSCs), chorionic villi (CV-MSCs), and dec...