Vitamin D facilitates trophoblast invasion through induction of epithelial-mesenchymal transition.

Problem: Vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of developing pregnancy-related complications, including preeclampsia and small-for-gestational-age infants. Vitamin D was demonstrated to promote the invasiveness of human extravillous trophoblasts (EVTs). However, whether vitamin D induces the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of EVTs remains unclear.

Activation of NOD-1/JNK/IL-8 signal axis in decidual stromal cells facilitates trophoblast invasion.

Decidual stromal cells (DSCs) are known to regulate trophoblast invasion via unveiled mechanism yet. And nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-containing protein 1 (NOD1) may influence on this DSC-trophoblast interaction. We investigated the mechanism underlying the DSC-mediated regulation of trophoblast invasion and the effect of NOD1 on their cross talk.