Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2025
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster V43
Höfundar / Authors: Saga Líf Ævarsdóttir (1), Jóhanna Gunnarsdóttir (1, 2), Sunhild Hartmann (3), Guðrún Valdimarsdóttir (1)
Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: 1. Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland. 2. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Landspitali University Hospital. 3. Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität Berlin, Germany.
Kynnir / Presenter: Saga Líf Ævarsdóttir
During placental development trophoblast cells of the placenta differentiate from cytotrophoblasts (CTBs) to extravillous trophoblasts (EVTs). In healthy placental development they undergo epithelial-to-mesenchymal-transition (EMT) and migrate to invade the maternal spiral artery. Trophoblast invasion causes remodeling of the artery as the trophoblast cells increase endothelial permeability when they replace the maternal ECs to become pseudo-endothelial cells. The remodeling leads to increased flexibility of the artery which will allow increased bloodflow to the growing fetus. If trophoblast invasion fails it could lead to the development of pre-eclampsia (PE), a life-threatening condition for both mother and fetus. ANGPTL4 is a secreted protein that has previously been studied as a downstream protein of the TGF-β pathway in breast cancer cells. Breast cancer cells, like trophoblasts, also need to undergo EMT, become invasive and increase the permeability of the endothelium. As these processes resemble each other, we were interested in studying ANGPTL4 in relation to trophoblast invasion and placental development. In this study we show the effect of the TGF-β pathway on ANGPTL4 expression in trophoblasts and the effect of ANGPTL4 on trophoblast migration. We demonstrate the effects that ANGPTL4 has on endothelial adhesion molecules and apoptosis. Using human serum- and placental samples we show the expression patterns of ANGPTL4 in healthy and PE pregnancies.