Isolation and characterization of human placental chorionic villar extracellular matrix

The cell-free extracellular matrix of human placental chorionic villi has been prepared by a procedure employing extraction of the terminal villar fragments with the detergents Triton X-100 and sodium deoxycholate. The isolated human placental extracellular matrix retains an intact, but collapsed, histoarchitecture, as observed by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. It remains intact, in large part because of the presence of continuous sheets of villar basement membranes and associated interstitial collagen fibers and scattered patches of fibrin. The staining charcteristics and chemical composition of the isolated human placental extracellular matrlix are similar to those reported for basement membranes in several tissues and indicate the presence of collagen-like and glycoprotein components in this preparation. Gel electrophoresis of urea-SDS-mercaptoethanol extracts of the matrix showed that it consists of several polypeptide components of various molecuar weights, some of which are associated into high molecular weight complexes by disulfide bonds.