MMPs expression and activity in the trophoblast-decidual tissues at middle gestation in mouse

FONTANA V; COLL TA; IGLESIAS A; PEREZ TITO L; CALVO JC; CEBRAL E

San Pablo

Congreso; XV Congresso da Sociedade Brasileira de Biologia Celular (SBBC),; 2010

SBBC

At early placentation, decidualization, vascular permeabitlity, angiogenesis and vascularization, trophoblastic migration and invasion, are related to the extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling, where the matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are responsible for degradation, particularly of I, III, IV and V collagens.The evidence and the role of MMP-2 and MMP-9 on decidual vascularization and trophoblastic function at middle murine gestation remain insufficient. The aim of this work is to study the localization, distribution and the differential expression of MMPs in the implantation site (IS) from normal CF-1 female mice, and evaluate the endogenous and in-vitro decidual MMP-activity. IS from adult superovulated and mated females were dissected on day 10 of gestation, fixed and histologically processed for MMP-9 immunohistochemistry. Decidual (D) tissues were homogenized for Western immunoblotting (WB) and zymograms were performed in D-tissues and in conditioned media (CM) from D-cultures. MMP-9 immunostaining was observed in fetal placenta (FP) (chorionic trophoblast, spongiotrophoblast and trophoblast giant cells (TGC), in decidual cells and in ECM but not in maternal endothelium from vascular mesometrial decidua. Only the active MMP-9 activity was detected in both CM and D-tissue, while Pro-MMP-2 and MMP-2 showed activity in CM and D. MMP-9 expression was detected in homogenized D (WB). These results show the localization, expression and activity of MMPs in maternal and fetal compartments of murine IS at day 10 of gestation, suggesting a potential role in decidual ECM remodeling, vascularization and angiogenesis during the establishment of early murine placentation.