engleski

The presence of apoptotic molecules Fas ligand and tumor necrosis factor related apoptosis inducing ligand at the maternal-fetal interface of ectopic pregnancy

The aim of our study was to determine the possible role of Fas ligand (FasL) and TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) proteins at the feto-maternal interface in tubal ectopic pregnancies (EP). TRAIL and FasL are transmembrane proteins that belong to the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) family and after binding its receptors they induce apoptosis in target cells. We compared expression of FasL and TRAIL in tubal mucosa, at and away of the implantation site, as well as in uterine decidua of women undergoing surgical treatment of EP. The results were compared with findings in decidua of women having elective termination of pregnancy. Immunohistology was used to display expression and localization of the FasL and TRAIL in paraffin embedded mucosal tissues. Furthermore, we obtained decidual mononuclear cells after enzymatic digestion of mucosal tissue and gradient centrifugation. The expression of FasL and TRAIL was then analyzed by flow cytometry in CD3 and CD56 labeled cells. We found TRAIL expression on syntitiotrophoblast and cytotrophoblast cells at the implantation site and on the surface epithelial cells and myocytes of tubal mucosal vessels in contrast to its lack in EP and normal early human pregnancy decidua. FasL seemed to be absent in protein form from the tubal mucosa and intrauterine decidua of EP, although weak surface expression was found on trophoblast cells. The frequency of TRAIL expressing CD3-CD56+ cells at the implantation site was approximately 5% and it was the highest in comparison to other mucosal sites or peripheral blood of the same women, due to the fluctuation of CD56+dim, rather than CD56+bright subset. FasL expression was low and basically the same in both NK cell subsets. Neither FasL nor TRAIL differs significantly among T cells from tested mucosal sites and peripheral blood. From all these data we conclude that TRAIL and FasL could facilitate trophoblast cell invasion in EP, whereas only TRAIL might represent physiological mechanism for preventing tubal implantation and trophoblast invasion in maternal circulation. Acknowledgement: The experiments were financed by Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports Grants No. 0620402-0376 and No. 0620402-0379.

Fas Ligand; TRAIL; ectopic prenancy

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