Inflammation accompany pregnancy for physiological reasons but can be also involved in pathological process with deleterious effect on placental function and fetal development. Transmembrane exchange of essential and waste substances in the placenta is one of the most important placental roles. This study focusses on two solute carrier transporters, OCTN1 (SLC22A4) and OCTN2 (SLC22A5), with OCTN2 playing a role in the placental uptake of L-carnitine and OCTN1 generally believed to ensure cell protection against oxidative stress. We employed two cellular models and ex vivo cultured human placental villous explants to address possible changes in the expression of placental OCTN1/2 upon inflammatory environment. Our data reveal the upregulation of OCTN1/ SLC22A4 in HTR-8/SVneo treated with TNF-α and IFN-γ. LPS was able to enhance OCTN1 expression in explants and IFN γ increased expression of OCTN1 in BeWo cells. OCTN2/ SLC22A5 expression was upregulated upon exposition of IFN-γ in HTR-8/SVneo cells but decreased following treatment of BeWo cells with TNF-α. TNF-α and also LPS further decreased expression of OCTN2 in ex vivo explants. In conclusion, our data show for the first time that the gene expression of OCTN1 as well as OCTN2 can be affected by inflammatory environment in human placenta.