Integrins and their ligands: are they correlated at pig placental interface during pregnancy?

VELEZ, CAROLINA; WILLIAMSON, DELIA; CLAUZURE, MARIANGELES; KONCURAT, MIRTA; BARBEITO, CLAUDIO

RESEARCH IN VETERINARY SCIENCE

ELSEVIER SCI LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2021

0034-5288

In the present work, we emphasize the studies about integrins and their receptors in pig placental interface at different times of gestation. Placental samples (n=24) of crossbred sows of 17-, 30-, 60-, 70-, and 114-days gestation (dg) and non-pregnant uterus (n=4) were used. The presence of αvβ3 and α5β1 integrins, and their ligands fibronectin (FN), and osteopontin (OPN) were detected by immunohistochemistry, and the immunolabelled area percentage (IAP) and the optical density (OD) were determined. The integrins and its ligands analyzed have presented peaks of expression in early and mid-gestation, both in IAP and the OD area decreasing at 70 dg. These temporal changes showed us that the molecules studied in this work participate in feto-maternal attachment, variably. Besides, we found a significant correlation both in the intensity and in the extension of immunostaining for trophoblastic FN and endometrial αvβ3, and trophoblastic OPN and endometrial α5β1, throughout the entire pig pregnancy. The absence of the expression of some integrins and their ligands studied in this work, it should be that others molecules could be participating in the establishment of the maternal-fetal interface, mainly at 70 dg.