3.3. Gene expression of OCTN transporters in placental villous explants upon effect of inflammatory stimulants
Following the in vitro experiments using placental cell lines BeWo and HTR-8/SVneo, we aimed to verify the results using ex vivo model derived directly from human term placenta. Therefore, placental villous explants have been established and exposed for 24 and 72 h to the same pro-inflammatory cytokines and stimulators as in the previous in vitro models (Fig. 3 A, B). Significant increase in the expression of SLC22A4 transporter was observed after exposition to LPS (Fig. 3 A). Some slight increase in the expression ofSLC22A5 could be seen after exposition to IFN-γ, but without the statistical significance and not reaching the threshold of 2-fold change. Following exposure to LPS and TNF-α the expression ofSLC22A5 transporter reached statistical down-regulation (Fig. 3 B). Exposure of explants to any of the other pro-inflammatory cytokines and stimulators did not significantly change the gene expression of any of the two OCTN transporters.