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Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Radiolabeling and Quantification of Cellular Levels of Phosphoinositides by High Performance Liquid Chromatography-coupled Flow Scintillation
Published on: January 6, 2016
Selective downregulation of phosphoinositide 3-kinase alpha in leukocytes during pregnancy
Anne Rohrbach1, Ignacio Rubio, Mehtab Bulgay-Moerschel
1Center for Molecular Biomedicine, Institute of Molecular Cell Biology, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, Germany.
Problem:
During pregnancy, it is crucially important that the mother's immune system tolerates the developing embryo. Although a number of mechanisms of immunological tolerance have been described, little is known about intracellular signaling events, causing a decrease in the mother's leukocyte activity.
Method Of Study:
We investigated the expression and activity of phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3K) in maternal blood cells of healthy volunteers by Reverse Transcription PCR and Western blotting.
Results:
Our data reveal a selective downregulation of the p110alpha catalytic isoform. This correlated with a slight decrease in PI3K activity as judged by the levels of phosphorylated Akt. CONCLUSION As PI3K are involved in signal transduction of various leukocyte receptors, this downregulation may comprise a means of holding immune functions at bay.
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