Molecular Characterization of Microtubule Affinity-Regulating Kinase4 from and Promotion of Lipogenesis in Primary Porcine Placental Trophoblasts.

This study aimed to characterize the full-length cDNA of MARK4 in , and evaluated its potential role in the regulation of lipid accumulation in pig placental trophoblasts and analyzed signaling pathways involved, thereby providing insights into mechanisms for placental lipotoxicity induced by excessive back-fat during pregnancy of sows. The cDNA obtained with 5' and 3' RACE amplification covered 3216 bp with an open reading frame of 2259 bp encoding 752 amino acids. Multiple alignments and phylogenetic analysis revealed MARK4 protein of had a high homology (95%⁻99%) to that of other higher vertebrates.

Maternal obesity stimulates lipotoxicity and up-regulates inflammatory signaling pathways in the full-term swine placenta.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of back-fat thickness (BF), at mating of sows, on placental lipotoxicity, oxidative stress, and inflammation. We performed iTRAQ labeling-based proteomic analysis on term placentas obtained by vaginal delivery from BFI (15-20 mm, control) and BFII (21-27 mm, obese) sows formed according to BF at mating. Proteomic analysis revealed 413 proteins to be significantly different in placenta from BFII sows by ≥1.