Hypoxia inhibits differentiation of lineage-specific Rcho-1 trophoblast giant cells.

Defects in placental development lead to pregnancies at risk for miscarriage and intrauterine growth retardation and are associated with preeclampsia, a leading cause of maternal death and premature birth. In preeclampsia, impaired placental formation has been associated with alterations in a specific trophoblast lineage, the invasive trophoblast cells. In this study, an RT-PCR Trophoblast Gene Expression Profile previously developed by our laboratory was utilized to examine the lineage-specific gene expression of the rat Rcho-1 trophoblast cell line.

Identification of committed placental stem cell lines for studies of differentiation.

Trophoblasts provide a model to investigate fundamental mechanisms of stem cell differentiation, but the availability of trophoblast stem cell lines is limited. Here we report the development of an RT-PCR-based lineage-specific profile as a method to identify the lineages of placental trophoblast cells routinely and specifically. This profiling method was used to analyze the mouse SM10 and rat HRP-1 cell lines, isolated from a region of the placental labyrinth, but of previously unidentified lineage.