Abstract
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 ofOCTN2 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.