Search

BACKGROUND: Cyclosporin A (CsA) is a powerful immunosuppressive that has been widely used to prevent organ rejection and to treat certain autoimmune diseases. Our previous study showed that CsA at low concentrations could promote proliferation and invasion, and inhibit apoptosis, of human first trimester trophoblasts. In the present study, we further explored the potential mechanism and signal pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

BACKGROUND Cyclosporin A (CsA) is an immunosuppressent which is used for preventing allograft rejection. Little is known, however, about the effect of CsA on the materno–fetal relationship. Our aim was to probe into the effect of CsA on the invasiveness of human first-trimester trophoblast cells and explore possible molecules involved, with a view to providing a new therapeutic approach for pregnancy complications with trophoblast disorder. METHODS The effects of CsA on invasion of the first-trimester human trophoblasts were examined by matrigel invasion assay, and the transcription, translation and proteolytic activity of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-9) and MMP-2 in these cells were estimated by RT-PCR, in-cell Western and zymography, respectively. The phosphorylation level of extracellular-signal related kinase (ERK) 1/2 in trophoblasts induced by CsA was also evaluated by in-cell Western. RESULTS CsA increased the invasive index of first-trimester human trophoblasts (P P P CONCLUSIONS CsA improves the invasiveness and activity of MMP 9 and MMP 2 in vitro of the first-trimester human trophoblast cells through activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular-signal related kinase (ERK) 1/2 signaling pathway, which suggests this drug has a favorable modulation on the function of human first-trimester trophoblast cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]