Aquaporin-3 expression in placental exosomes isolated from plasma of first trimester pregnant women.

AYALA-RAMIREZ, PAOLA; GARCIA-ROBLES, REGGIE; MEDINA, YOLLYSETH; DAMIANO, ALICIA E; SZPILBARG, NATALIA; MARTINEZ, NORA

Congreso; Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigaciones Clínicas.; 2018

Aquaporin-3 (AQP3) is expressed from early stages of gestation to term placenta. Evidences have described the participation of this protein in physiological processes and in diverse clinical dysfunctions. Regarding the human placenta, we recently found that AQP3 participates in the migration of the extravillous trophoblast cells and in the apoptosis of the villous trophoblast. In addition, we also described a decreased expression of AQP3 in preeclamptic placentas. Among the strategies that have arisen for the study of placental pathologies,exosomes derived from placenta have been proposed as the candidates that could best represent the changes that occur in the trophoblast throughout pregnancy. These extracellular vesicles derived from the syncytiotrophoblast are present in maternal circulation from week 6 to the end of gestation. Our hypothesis is that the AQP3 normal expression is crucial for an appropriate placental development.Our objective is to study the presence of AQP3 in placental exosomes isolated from the plasma of pregnant women to evaluate its potential use as an indicator of placental function.Plasma samples (n=5) from pregnant women before 20 weeks of gestation were obtained after the approval of the bioethics committee and the signing of the informed consent.Exosomes were isolated by differential centrifugation from the plasma of pregnant women during the first trimester of pregnancy.Samples were positively selected by binding to anti-CD63 (exosome marker). Then, the isolated exosomes were analyzed for AQP3 and PLAP (syncytiotrophoblast marker) by quantitative RT-PCR and western blot. The results showed that the expression of mRNA and protein ofAQP3 is detectable in exosomes obtained from the plasma of pregnant women in the first trimester. Therefore, the level of AQP3 may be useful as an indicator of placental function throughout pregnancy and potentially correlate with the development of placental pathologies.