EXPRESSION AND ACTIVITY OF MATRIX METALLOPROTEASE-2 IN CANINE EARLY PLACENTA

E. CEBRAL , M. DIESSLER , M. VENTUREIRA , C. SOBARZO , R. HERNANDEZ, L. CASAS , C. BARBEITO

Mar del Plata

Congreso; VI Latin American Symposium on Maternal-Fetal Interaction and Placenta and V Latin American Symposium on Reproductive Immunology Meeting 2015; 2014

Latin American Symposium on Maternal-Fetal Interaction and Placenta and V Latin American Society

Objective: Implantation and placentation require tissue remodelingthrough enzymes of the matrix metalloprotease group (MMPs). Becausethe expression of these enzymes has been studied in implantation andplacentation of species with different types of placentas, but not in thecanine endotheliochorial one, the objective of this work was to investigatethe expression and activity of MMP-2 in the canine placenta at the earliestgestational stage.Methods: Samples from four early canine placentas (18-30 days) wereobtained. The placentas from one uterine horn of each bitch wereformalin-fixed, while those from the other horn were obtained on dryice and kept at -70 for molecular determinations. Slices were routinelycolored and processed by PAS-reaction to analyze general features.MMP-2 expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) andWestern Blot (WB), and enzyme activity was evaluated by zymography(Zg). Maternal, labyrinthine and hematomal zones were analyzed ineach case.Results and Conclusions: Positive reaction to the MMP-2 antibody wasobserved in the labyrinth and hematoma, being stronger in cytotrophoblastcells and syncytium. WB showed a MMP-2 band between53-68 kDa in the labyrinth (L), hematoma (H), implantational endometrium(IE) and non-implantational endometrium (No-IE). LabyrinthineMMP-2 level of expression (mean OD/actin ± SD) was slightlyhigher than hematomal MMP-2 (p<0,05), whereas IE MMP-2 expressionhad the lowest level. The L/IE relation was 2.5 and H/IE 1.8. By Zg,we detected only the active MMP-2 at 54 kDa, both in L and H. However,labyrinth had lower MMP-2 activity than hematoma (p<0.05).These data show that MMP-2 expression and activation is dependenton the placental tissue and suggest that it actively participates in aspecific tissue remodeling that takes place during early placentation incanines.