Differential Effects of Sodium Butyrate and Lithium Chloride on Rhesus Monkey Trophoblast Differentiation.

Trophoblast differentiation during early placental development is critical for successful pregnancy and aberrant differentiation causes preeclampsia and early pregnancy loss. During the first trimester, cytotrophoblasts are exposed to low oxygen tension (equivalent to~2%-3% O2) and differentiation proceeds along an extravillous pathway (giving rise to invasive extravillous cytotrophoblasts) and a villous pathway (giving rise to multinucleated syncytiotrophoblast). Interstitial extravillous cytotrophoblasts invade the decidua, while endovascular extravillous cytotrophoblasts are involved in re-modelling uterine spiral arteries.

Early Developmental and Evolutionary Origins of Gene Body DNA Methylation Patterns in Mammalian Placentas.

Over the last 20-80 million years the mammalian placenta has taken on a variety of morphologies through both divergent and convergent evolution. Recently we have shown that the human placenta genome has a unique epigenetic pattern of large partially methylated domains (PMDs) and highly methylated domains (HMDs) with gene body DNA methylation positively correlating with level of gene expression. In order to determine the evolutionary conservation of DNA methylation patterns and transcriptional regulatory programs in the placenta, we performed a genome-wide methylome (MethylC-seq) analysis of human, rhesus macaque, squirrel monkey, mouse, dog, horse, and cow placentas as well as opossum extraembryonic membrane.

Effect of microcystin-LR on human placental villous trophoblast differentiation in vitro.

Microcystin-LR is a cyanobacterial toxin found in surface and recreational waters that inhibits protein phosphatases and may disrupt the cytoskeleton. Microcystins induce apoptosis in hepatocytes at ≤ 2.0 µM.

MUC1 Is Expressed by Human Skin Fibroblasts and Plays a Role in Cell Adhesion and Migration.

The mucin MUC1 is expressed by normal and cancerous epithelial cells and some nonepithelial cells in which it plays roles in regulating adhesion, migration, and cell signaling. In the present studies we found that MUC1 is expressed by normal human neonatal and adult skin fibroblasts. Fibroblasts are usually considered negative for MUC1 expression.

The MUC1 extracellular domain subunit is found in nuclear speckles and associates with spliceosomes.

MUC1 is a large transmembrane glycoprotein and oncogene expressed by epithelial cells and overexpressed and underglycosylated in cancer cells. The MUC1 cytoplasmic subunit (MUC1-C) can translocate to the nucleus and regulate gene expression. It is frequently assumed that the MUC1 extracellular subunit (MUC1-N) does not enter the nucleus.