Protein and mRNA expression of visfatin in placenta of patients with pre-eclampsia / 中国病理生理杂志

ABSTRACT

AIM:To investigate the expression of visfatin in the placenta of patients with preeclampsia and its significance.METHODS:The pregnant women (n=100) were divided into normal pregnancy group , mild preeclampsia group and severe preeclampsia group according to the severity of the disease .The pathological changes of the placenta were observed by hematoxylin-eosin staining .The expression of visfatin at mRNA and protein levels in the placenta was detected by real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry respectively .RESULTS:Compared with normal pregnancy group , the patho-logical changes of the placenta in preeclampsia groups was significant , showing that the structure and the form were disor-dered and incompleted in both cytotrophoblasts and syncytiotrophoblasts .The proliferation of cytotrophoblasts and the num-bers of the placental villi with syncytial knots were observed .The vascular numbers of villi were decreased and congested . The results of immunohistochemistry and real-time PCR showed that the visfatin protein was observed in the cytoplasm of cy-totrophoblasts and syncytiotrophoblasts among 3 groups.The expression of visfatin at mRNA and protein levels was in-creased with the severity of the preeclampsia .CONCLUSION:The injury and dysfunction of vascular endothelial cells in the villi exist in the patients with preeclampsia .High expression of visfatin at mRNA and protein levels in placenta of the patients with preeclampsia indicates that visfatin is closely related to preeclampsia .