HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal My Folders Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Kruse, A. Articles by Butcher, E. C. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Kruse, A. Articles by Butcher, E. C. Agricola Articles by Kruse, A. Articles by Butcher, E. C.

Specialized Patterns of Vascular Differentiation Antigens in the Pregnant Mouse Uterus and the Placenta¹

^a Laboratory of Immunology and Vascular Biology, Department of Pathology and the Digestive Disease Center, Department of Medicine, Stanford University Medical School, Stanford, California, 94305 ^b Center for Molecular Biology and Medicine, Foothill Research Center, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, California 94304 ^c Institut für Experimentelle Medizin, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91054 Erlangen, Germany

The success of pregnancy depends on the ability of trophoblast cells to infiltrate the maternal decidua and breach uterine vessels. To ask whether the antigenic phenotype of maternal endothelial cells (EC) in the vascular zone and central decidua basalis may reflect a specialized programming of these vessels for interaction with the trophoblast, we did a survey of several mouse EC differentiation antigens, including MECA-32, MECA-99, and endoglin. Our results revealed striking differences in the phenotype of endothelial lining of vessels in the distinct compartments of the pregnant uterus during Day 9 of pregnancy and at midgestation. Vessels in the central decidua basalis and the vascular zone showed strong expression of MECA-99 but only weak expression of MECA-32, contrasting with the MECA-99^lo, MECA-32^hi vessels in the capsularis. The vascular zone in addition stained brightly with anti-endoglin. Importantly, invading trophoblast as well as trophoblast cells lining maternal blood spaces were MECA-99⁺, MECA-32^-, and endoglin^-, suggesting that the expression of MECA-99 may reflect a specialized co-programming of these trophoblast and EC for future interaction, but also that trophoblast cells may mimic selected antigenic characteristics of endothelium in association with their role in lining maternal blood spaces. In the term pregnant uterus the expression of all differentiation antigens decreased dramatically, suggesting that trophoblast cells as well as maternal EC lose their selected antigenic characteristics when the process of placentation is complete.

¹ This work was supported in part by NIH grants GM37734, AI37832, and by the FACS Core and by the Molecular Biology and Cell Imaging Core Facilities of the Stanford Digestive Disease Center under DK38707, and by an Award from the Department of Veterans Affairs. A.K. was a recipient of a fellowship from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

² Correspondence and current address: Andrea Kruse, Institute of Immunology, University of Lübeck, School of Medicine, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23538 Lübeck, Germany. FAX: 49 451 5003069; kruse{at}immu.mu-luebeck.de

This article has been cited by other articles:

				L. Pereira, E. Maidji, S. McDonagh, O. Genbacev, and S. Fisher Human Cytomegalovirus Transmission from the Uterus to the Placenta Correlates with the Presence of Pathogenic Bacteria and Maternal Immunity J. Virol., December 15, 2003; 77(24): 13301 - 13314. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]