Abstract:

Objective To investigate the effects of preeclampsia serum on activity and invasive ability of cultured cytotrophoblasts of first trimester of pregnancy. Methods Cytotrophoblasts of normal 6 to 8-week pregnancy were cultured by tissue explants adherent method, and were incubated with serum of women with normal pregnancy (normal group) and preeclampsia (preeclampsia group), respectively for 24 h. The activity of cytotrophoblasts was examined by CCK-8, invasive ability was determined by Transwell invasion assay, and expression of MMP-2, MMP-9 and PAI-1 mRNA was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Results The activity and invasive ability of cytotrophoblasts in preeclampsia group were lower than those in normal group (P<0.05, P<0.01). Compared with normal group, the expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9 mRNA of cytotrophoblasts was significantly lower (P<0.01), and the expression of PAI-1 mRNA was significantly higher (P<0.01). In both groups, the expression of MMP-2 mRNA was negatively related to that of PAI-1 mRNA （r=-0.985, P<0.01; r=-0.933, P<0.05）, while there was no correlationship between the expression of MMP-9 mRNA and that of PAI-1 mRNA. Conclusion The preeclampsia serum may affect the invasive ability of cytotrophoblasts by regulating the expression of MMP-2, MMP-9 and PAI-1.

Key words: preeclampsia, cytotrophoblast, invasion, matrix metalloproteinases, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1