title: Autophagy in Normal and Abnormal Early Human Pregnancies.
abstract: Autophagy is an inducible catabolic process by which cells degrade and recycle materials to survive stress, starvation, and hypoxia. The aim of this study was to evaluate autophagy at the fetal-maternal interface, to assess autophagy involvement during the early phase of human gestation, and to explore autophagic modification in case of early abnormal pregnancy outcome. Specimens were collected from first-trimester normal gestations undergoing legal termination of pregnancy and first-trimester sporadic spontaneous miscarriages. Autophagy was studied in villous and decidual samples by transmission electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, and Western blotting. Autophagy markers were found in cytotrophoblast, syncytiotrophoblast, extravillous trophoblast, and decidual stromal cells. Autophagy is physiologically involved in early normal gestation. Compared with normal pregnancy, spontaneous miscarriage presents an increase in autophagy expression in villous specimens due to an increment in concentration of autophagic vacuole in syncytiotrophoblast, suggesting a cytoprotective mechanism of the cells to respond to microenvironmental challenge.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, San Paolo Hospital Medical School, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy laura.avagliano@unimi.it.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Avagliano
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, San Paolo Hospital Medical School, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Terraneo
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, San Paolo Hospital Medical School, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Eleonora
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Virgili
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Martinelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, San Paolo Hospital Medical School, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Doi
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, San Paolo Hospital Medical School, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Samaja
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, San Paolo Hospital Medical School, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Gaetano Pietro
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Bulfamante
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, San Paolo Hospital Medical School, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Marconi
mesh_terms: D000022:Abortion, Spontaneous / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D000328:Adult; D001343:Autophagy / Q000502:physiology*; D002824:Chorionic Villi / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D003656:Decidua / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008431:Maternal-Fetal Exchange / Q000502:physiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011261:Pregnancy Trimester, First / Q000378:metabolism*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: apoptosis; autophagy; miscarriage; pregnancy; trophoblast