ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the expression of complement regulatory proteins on placentas of pregnant C57BL/6 mice infected with Toxoplasma gondii in order to explore the molecular immunological mechanism for abnormal pregnancy induced by T. gondii infection. Methods Twenty-four pregnant C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into two groups equally. The infection group was intraperitoneally injected with 200 of living T, gondii RH strain tachyzoites on the 8th day of gestation, and the normal group of mice was injected with physiological saline. All mice were killed on day 14 after gestation and placentas were collected. The expression levels of Crry, GPI-DAF and CD59a mRNA were analyzed by real-time quantitative PCR, and the positive rates of Crry and GPI-DAF were measured with flow cytometry. Results The died fetus rates of infected group and control were 80. 95% and 4. 41% , respectively. The infected group was significantly higher than of that the control group (P＜0.01). The expression levels of Crry, GPT-DAF and CD59a mRNA in the infected and control group were 0.786 ±0. 199, 0.594 ±0.096, 0.880 ±0. 179 and 0.550 ±0.077, 0.221 ±0.074, 0.591 ± 0.075 , respectively, and the difference of three kind of complement regulation proteins between two groups was all significant (P＜0.01). The positive percentages of Crry and GPI-DAF cells of infected and control group were (10. 03 ± 2. 11) % , (2.95 ±1.04)% and (3. 15 ± 1. 32) % , (0. 66 ±0. 26) % , respectively, and the difference of the two kind complement regulation proteins between two groups was also significant ( P ＜ 0. 01). Conclusion The expression level of mouse placental complement regulatory proteins was increased after infection with T. gondii, and then immunological microenvironment at the fetomaternal interface was destroyed. It may be one of important immunological mechanism for abnormal pregnancy induced by T. gondii infection.