The molecular changes during placental detachment.
OBJECTIVE
RCAS1 is a membrane protein that plays a role in the maintenance of maternal immune tolerance during pregnancy. The work presented here demonstrates the results of RCAS1 expression in placenta in cases of placental abruption and patients with retained placental tissue during the third stage of labor.


METHODS
The placenta tissue samples were obtained during vaginal and cesarean delivery (derived from 117 pregnancies). Pregnant women were divided into four groups according to the onset of labor and the time of placental detachment in term labors. The samples were analyzed by the Western blot method. Statistical analysis was performed using the Shapiro-Wilk procedure. The Mann-Whitney test and Student's t-test were applied to compare the differences between parametric data.


RESULTS
The average relative amount of RCAS1 observed in those patients with retained placental tissue was statistically significantly higher than in the patients with placental abruption.


CONCLUSIONS
The differences observed in placental RCAS1 levels confirm the participation of this protein in the inhibition of maternal immune response during gestation. The present results also indicate that RCAS1 participates in the changes in the maternal immune system that take place during parturition and reinforce its potential involvement in the mechanism of placental abruption.
Wicherek
Lukasz
L
Department of Gynecology and Infertility Clinic of Jagiellonian University, 23 Kopernika Street, 30-005 Krakow, Poland. mowicher@cyf-kr.edu.pl
Klimek
Marek
M
Dutsch-Wicherek
Magdalena
M
Kolodziejski
Lech
L
Skotniczny
Krzysztof
K
D000037:Abruptio Placentae / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D000199:Actins / Q000378:metabolism; D000328:Adult; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007749:Labor Stage, Third / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D010920:Placenta / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D018457:Placenta, Retained / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D011247:Pregnancy; D016008:Statistical Distributions; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
D000199:Actins; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; C120762:EBAG9 protein, human