Are placental aquaporins involved in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia?

DAMIANO ALICIA E

Foz de Iguazu

Simposio; V LatinAmerican Symposium on Maternal-Fetal Interaction & Placenta; 2013

Placenta Association of the Americas- Grupo Latinoamericano de placenta

It was suggested that aquaporins (AQPs) may be involved in the regulation of placental water flow. In preeclamptic placentas, despite of the overexpression of AQP9, we found that water permeability mediated by placental AQPs seems to be independent of their molecular expression.We reported that insulin, O2 and hCG may regulate AQPs molecular expression, however their role in human placenta is still unknown. Since preeclampsia is not known to be associated with an altered water flux to the fetus we propose that AQPs may be related to apoptosis processes. In placental explants exposed to different O2 tensions to induce apoptosis, we observed that mercurial inhibition of AQPs resulted in a decrease in all apoptosis parameters studied. Our findings suggested that placental AQPs may be involved in apoptosis and their dysregulation in preeclampsia may enhance the apoptotic events that lead to the clinical manifestations of this disorder.