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Abstract:
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Preeclampsia is a placental disorder involving shallow embryonic invasion is also known as toxemia or pregnancy‐induced hypertension (PIH), and occurs in ~7% of all births in the United States. The placenta is composed of trophoblast cells that are organized into three layers: the giant cell layer, the spongiotrophoblast layer, and the labyrinthine layer. Preliminary data indicates that prolonged placental activity of the hypoxia inducible gene, HIF‐1 alpha, results in changes to placental architecture, failure of trophoblast giant cells to invade and remodel the maternal arteries, premature birth, and low birth weight offspring. In order to address the role of giant cell invasion and oxygen regulation in the placenta, we created a lentiviral construct using a cell‐specific, invasive trophoblast giant cell
lineage promoter, mPL1 via genomic PCR. The first of the lentiviral constructs created for testing includes a green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene driven by mPL1 promoter. To subsequenly test hypoxia, the green fluorescent protein gene will be replaced with the HIF‐1 alpha gene. This final construct will then be used in in vivo embryo transfer studies to test oxygen sensing in the invasive giant cell layer of the placenta and provide a better understanding of pre‐eclampsia. |
