Changes in T-plastin expression with human trophoblast differentiation

During the first trimester of pregnancy, the human placenta is an actively dividing and highly invasive tumour-like tissue, while near term, it represents a fully developed, non-invasive unit. In order to understand the molecular basis of this marked difference in the placental phenotypes, an approach based on a differential display-reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (DD-RT-PCR) was adopted to analyse changes in gene expression, using total RNA isolated from first-trimester and term placental villi. Using this approach, T-plastin was initially identified as being differentially expressed in the human first-trimester placenta. T-plastin is an actin-bundling protein and is known to be highly expressed in actively dividing cells and up-regulated in several carcinomas. Using a homogenous population of cytotrophoblasts and syncytiotrophoblasts isolated from human placentae, the present authors demonstrate the differential expression of T-plastin in cytotrophoblasts compared with the terminally differentiated syncytiotrophoblasts. The down-regulation of T-plastin expression is further demonstrated in human trophoblastic BeWo cells induced to differentiate using transforming growth factor (TGF)beta1, a growth factor known for its anti-proliferative and anti-invasive response in placental cells. These studies suggest that expression of T-plastin in the placental context may indeed be associated with the enhanced replicative potential of placental trophoblasts.