AQUAPORIN-9 IS EXPRESSED IN VILLOUS TROPHOBLAST MITOCHONDRIA.

MEDINA, YOLLYSETH; DAMIANO, ALICIA E.; SEYAHIAN, E. ABRIL ; CASTRO-PARODI MAURICIO; SZPILBARG, NATALIA

Ciudad de Buenos Aires

Congreso; International Federation of Placenta Associations 2019 meeting and 8th Latin American Symposium on Maternal-Fetal Interaction and Placenta; 2019

IFPA-SLIMP

Objectives: To explore the expression of aquaporin-9 (AQP9) in the heavy/large and light/small mitochondrial subpopulations that coexist in thevillous trophoblast of term placenta.Methods: This study was approved by the ethics committee of HospitalNacional Prof. Dr. A. Posadas. Human chorionic villi were fragmented, andtissue was shaken in HES buffer (10 mM HEPES-KOH, 0.1 mM EGTA, 250mM sucrose), pH 7.4, with protease inhibitors. Differential centrifugationwas performed to obtain mitochondrial, microsomal and cytosolic fractions. From mitochondrial fraction, heavy/large and light/small mitochondrial populations were also isolated by differential centrifugation.Localization was confirmed by immunofluorescence assay.Results: Our results showed for the first time the expression and localization of AQP9 in mitochondria of villous trophoblast from normal termplacentas. In addition, we only found that AQP9 was expressed in theheavy/large mitochondrial subpopulation.Conclusion: AQP9 can function not only as a water channel but also as aperoxiporin. The presence of AQP9 in the heavy mitochondria fractionsuggest that this protein may contribute to the regulation of mitochondrialmatrix volume and facilitate the mitochondrial H2O2 release. Thus, anabnormal AQP9 expression may exacerbated oxidative stress and celldeath, triggering pathological situations such as preeclampsia. Furtherstudies are required to elucidate the role of AQP9 in villous trophoblastmitochondria.