Fibulin-5 expression in the human placenta.

Fibulin-5 is a secreted extracellular matrix glycoprotein and displays a diverse panel of biological functions, which can be segregated into elastogenic as well as extra-elastogenic functions. While elastogenic functions of fibulin-5 include essential roles in early steps of elastic fibre assembly, extra-elastogenic functions are widespread. Depending on the cell type used, fibulin-5 mediates cell adherence via a subset of integrins, antagonizes angiogenesis and inhibits migration as well as proliferation of endothelial and smooth muscle cells. In this study, we focused on the spatiotemporal expression of fibulin-5 in the human placenta. With progressing gestation, placental fibulin-5 expression increased from first trimester towards term. At term, placental fibulin-5 mRNA expression is lower when compared with other well-vascularized organs such as lung, kidney, heart, uterus and testis. In first trimester, placenta immunohistochemistry localized fibulin-5 in villous cytotrophoblasts and extravillous cytotrophoblasts of the proximal cell column. In term placenta, fibulin-5 was detected in the endothelial basement membrane and adventitia-like regions of vessels in the chorionic plate and stem villi. Cell culture experiments with the villous trophoblast-derived cell line BeWo showed that fibulin-5 expression was downregulated during functional differentiation and intercellular fusion. Moreover, cultivation of BeWo cells under low oxygen conditions impaired intercellular fusion and upregulated fibulin-5 expression. The spatiotemporal shift from the trophoblast compartment in first trimester to the villous vasculature at term suggests a dual role of fibulin-5 in human placental development.

The choriocarcinoma cell line BeWo: syncytial fusion and expression of syncytium-specific proteins.

Fusion of the trophoblast-derived choriocarcinoma cell line BeWo can be triggered by forskolin. BeWo cells are regularly used as a cell culture model to mimic in vivo syncytialisation of placental villous trophoblast. The ß subunit of human chorionic gonadotropin (CGB), placental alkaline phosphatase as well as placental protein 13 (PP13, LGALS13) are exclusively expressed in the syncytiotrophoblast of the human placenta, and CGB is commonly used as a marker of syncytial differentiation. Here we tested the hypothesis that syncytial fusion precedes CGB and LGALS13 expression in trophoblast-derived BeWo cells. BeWo cells were cultured for 48 h in the presence or absence of forskolin and varying concentrations of H-89, a protein kinase A inhibitor that interferes with the forskolin-mediated pathway of syncytial fusion. LGALS13 and CGB expression were quantified by DELFIA and real-time PCR. Cell fusion was determined by morphological analysis and cell counting after immunofluorescence staining. In forskolin-stimulated BeWo cells that were hindered to fuse by treatment with H-89, levels of CGB protein expression were not altered, while LGALS13 protein and mRNA expression decreased significantly to control levels without forskolin. The LGALS13 protein expression data coincided with a significant decrease in syncytial fusion, while CGB protein expression was unaffected by rates of cell fusion and proliferation. We postulate that CGB protein expression is not necessarily linked to syncytial fusion, and thus CGB should be used with great caution as a marker of BeWo cell fusion.

Oxygen as modulator of trophoblast invasion.

At the time of blastocyst implantation the uterine spiral arteries have already undergone morphological changes in the absence of any extravillous trophoblast invasion. Only 2 weeks after implantation, extravillous trophoblast cells develop and come into first contact with decidual tissues. Invading through the decidual interstitium, extravillous trophoblasts potentially reach and transform spiral arteries into uteroplacental arteries. Spiral arterial erosion starts at about mid-first trimester, whereas flow of maternal blood into the intervillous space is continuously established only at the beginning of the second trimester. One key regulator of the number of extravillous trophoblasts is oxygen. The steep gradient in oxygen concentration within the first trimester placenta is diminished with the onset of maternal blood flow. This gradient is used by the trophoblast to generate a large number of invasive cells to adapt the arterial vasculature in the placental bed to the growing needs of the fetus. Changes in oxygen concentrations or other factors leading to alterations in the rates of proliferation and/or apoptosis of extravillous trophoblast clearly impact on the remodelling of the vessels. The respective consequences of a failure in trophoblast invasion are growth restrictions of the baby and perhaps other pregnancy complications.