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23 May 2012 Connexin 31 (GJB3) Deficiency in Mouse Trophoblast Stem Cells Alters Giant Cell Differentiation and Leads to Loss of Oxygen Sensing
Yvonne Koch, Betina van Fürden, Stephanie Kaiser, Diana Klein, Mark Kibschull, Hubert Schorle, Alexander Carpinteiro, Alexandra Gellhaus, Elke Winterhager
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Abstract

The nonphysiological placental oxidative environment has been implicated in many complications during human pregnancy. Oxygen tension can influence a broad spectrum of molecular changes leading to alterations in trophoblast cell lineage development. In this study, we report that mouse wild-type trophoblast stem cells (TSCs) react to low oxygen (3%) with an enhanced differentiation into the giant cell pathway, indicated by a downregulation of the early stem cell markers Eomes and Cdx2 as well as by a significant upregulation of Tfap2c and the differentiation markers Tpbpa and Prl3d1. Here we demonstrated that connexin 31/GJB3-deficient TSCs failed to stabilize HIF-1A under low oxygen, resulting in nonresponsiveness of different marker genes, such as Cdx2 and Eomes and Tfap2c and Tpbpa. Moreover, connexin 31-deficient TSCs revealed a shift in giant cell differentiation from Prl3d1 expressing parietal giant cells to Ctsq, Prl3b1, and Prl2c2-positive giant cells, probably sinusoidal and canal lining trophoblast giant cells. Thus, loss of connexin 31 led to different giant cell subtypes which bypass the progenitor regulators Tfap2c and Tpbpa under low oxygen conditions.

© 2012 by the Society for the Study of Reproduction, Inc.
Yvonne Koch, Betina van Fürden, Stephanie Kaiser, Diana Klein, Mark Kibschull, Hubert Schorle, Alexander Carpinteiro, Alexandra Gellhaus, and Elke Winterhager "Connexin 31 (GJB3) Deficiency in Mouse Trophoblast Stem Cells Alters Giant Cell Differentiation and Leads to Loss of Oxygen Sensing," Biology of Reproduction 87(2), (23 May 2012). https://doi.org/10.1095/biolreprod.111.098079
Received: 29 November 2011; Accepted: 1 May 2012; Published: 23 May 2012
KEYWORDS
connexin 31
gap junctions
hypoxia
placenta
TFAP2C
trophoblast cell lineage
trophoblast stem cells
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