Published online before print 18 February 2004. DOI 10.1095/biolreprod.103.024729 The Expression of CXCR4/CXCL12 in First-Trimester Human Trophoblast Cells1

Chemokines and chemokine receptors have been implicated as pivotal players in many physiological and pathological situa-tions, but little is known about the expression and function of chemokines and chemokine receptors at the materno-fetal in-terface. In this study, we first analyzed the transcription of 18 chemokine receptors in first-trimester human trophoblast cells. Among these receptors, CXCR4 was found highly transcribed. We demonstrated afterward that both CXCR4 and CXCL12 (stro-mal cell-derived factor-1; SDF-1) were expressed in trophoblast cells. Primary cultured trophoblast cells were also found secret-ing CXCL12 spontaneously. To identify the functional role of CXCR4/CXCL12 in these cells, we treated trophoblast cells with recombinant human (rh)SDF-1a and analyzed the cell viability and signaling pathway. The results showed that rhSDF-1a in-creased the viability of trophoblast cells and the activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases signaling pathway in vitro. Our findings suggest that first-trimester trophoblast cells express functional CXCR4/CXCL12, which may play an important role in early pregnancy such as stimulating trophoblast cell prolif-eration or differentiation in an autocrine manner. cytokines, trophoblas