title: Review: The role of autophagy in extravillous trophoblast function under hypoxia.
abstract: Autophagy, a process for cellular cleaning through the removal of intracellular components in lysosomes, is a well conserved mechanism from yeast to mammalian cells, and also contributes to the maintenance of cellular homeostasis and of the energetic balance, in cellular and tissue remodeling, and cellular defense against extracellular insults and pathogens. The role of autophagy in placentation has been clarified. Autophagy is induced in trophoblasts under physiological hypoxia during early pregnancy and seems to have a role in placentation. Recent findings suggest that impaired autophagy might induce poor placentation in preeclamptic cases. In this review, we discuss the role of autophagy and summarize the role of autophagy-related genes in placentas.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toyama, 2630 Sugitani, Toyama 930-0194, Japan. s30saito@med.u-toyama.ac.jp
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nakashima
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001343:Autophagy / Q000502:physiology*; D015687:Cell Hypoxia; D005260:Female; D005317:Fetal Growth Retardation / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D010929:Placentation / Q000502:physiology; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D011247:Pregnancy; D014327:Trophoblasts / Q000502:physiology*