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ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Expression of the Small Heat Shock Protein alphaB‐Crystallin in Term Human Placenta
Author(s) -
Mineva Ivelina,
Stamenova Maria,
Gartner Wolfgang,
Wagner Ludwig
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
american journal of reproductive immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.071
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1600-0897
pISSN - 1046-7408
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0897.2008.00642.x
Subject(s) - biology , heat shock protein , placenta , dna methylation , hsp27 , syncytiotrophoblast , gene expression , immunofluorescence , cpg site , microbiology and biotechnology , gene , genetics , hsp70 , antibody , fetus , pregnancy
Problem Expression of heat shock proteins has been described in different tissues relevant to human reproduction, including placenta. AlphaB‐crystallin is a member of the small heat shock protein family (sHsp) exerting biologically important chaperon functions. Method of study Immunofluorescence; immunoblot analysis; quantitative real‐time‐PCR; CpG island methylation analysis. Results In this study, we once again describe the expression of alphaB‐crystallin in the stroma of the placental villi and in the cytoplasm of decidual cells by immunofluorescence. In contrast, Hsp27 – another sHsp family member – was detected exclusively in the syncytiotrophoblast layer. This varying expression pattern provides additional support to earlier reports of functional differences between both proteins. Semi‐quantitative immunoblot analysis of placenta tissue specimens ( n = 6) revealed Hsp27 expression exceeding that of alphaB‐crystallin, albeit with inter‐individual variations. Inter‐individual alphaB‐crystallin expression variations were confirmed by quantitative RT‐PCR. CpG island methylation was ruled out as the underlying cause for the inter‐individual alphaB‐crystallin expression variations. However, the expression extent of GATA3, which is a transcription factor with corresponding elements within the alphaB‐crystallin gene (CRYAB) promoter, paralleled that of alphaB‐crystallin. We demonstrated remarkable GATA3 expression in placental tissue, exceeding that of other endocrine organs. Conclusion We can conclude that the differential expression patterns of alphaB‐crystallin and Hsp27 indicate functional differences between these highly related proteins in placental tissues.