title: Tumour necrosis factor alpha binding to human and mouse trophoblast.
abstract: Tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) is a cytokine with pleiotropic effects, modulating cell growth, differentiation, and synthesis of various substances. Recent demonstration of TNF-alpha mRNA and protein in the uteroplacental unit suggests that this cytokine may be involved in the development of the embryo. To determine whether the embryo itself binds TNF-alpha, mouse blastocyst outgrowths and human first trimester villous trophoblast were analysed for TNF-alpha binding. Our experiments revealed that binding of TNF-alpha could be specifically detected on the trophectoderm of the outgrowing mouse embryos. They also show a complete disappearance of the colony-stimulating factor 1 (CSF-1) receptor that occurs shortly after the binding of TNF-alpha by the trophectoderm. In human first trimester villous trophoblast, TNF-alpha binding was found to be predominantly detectable on the syncytiotrophoblast and to a lesser extent on the cytotrophoblastic cells. Binding was not observed on adjacent embryonic or maternal cells. Our results further support the idea that TNF-alpha as well as other cytokines may modulate early embryonic development and implantation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Immunology, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ben-Yair
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Less
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lev
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ben-Yehoshua
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tartakovsky
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001345:Autoradiography; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000378:metabolism; D015536:Down-Regulation; D010064:Embryo Implantation; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D019084:Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008811:Mice, Inbred DBA; D008970:Molecular Weight; D011247:Pregnancy; D016186:Receptor, Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor / Q000378:metabolism; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D014327:Trophoblasts / Q000378:metabolism*; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D016186:Receptor, Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor