The human cytotrophoblastic cell, a mononuclear chameleon

The human placenta represents an abundant; easily accessible and unlimited study material (at birth a human placenta provides about 500 g of trophoblast). Cytotrophoblastic cells (CTB) are one constituent of the human placenta and represent epithelial cells with fascinating properties: They are able...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The international journal of biochemistry & cell biology 2005, Vol.37 (1), p.1-16
Main Authors: Bischof, Paul, Irminger-Finger, Irmgard
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cell Differentiation - physiology
Cell Transformation, Neoplastic - pathology
Cytotrophoblast
Epithelial Cells - physiology
Female
Fibroblasts - physiology
Fusion
Giant Cells - physiology
Humans
Invasion
Mesoderm - physiology
Placenta
Pregnancy
Signal Transduction - physiology
Syncytiotrophoblast
Trophoblasts - pathology
Trophoblasts - physiology
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Summary:The human placenta represents an abundant; easily accessible and unlimited study material (at birth a human placenta provides about 500 g of trophoblast). Cytotrophoblastic cells (CTB) are one constituent of the human placenta and represent epithelial cells with fascinating properties: They are able to fuse to form syncytia, can behave like immotile polarized epithelial cells, can phenocopy stromal fibroblasts or endothelial cells or undergo a mesenchymal-like transformation that converts them into non proliferative and highly invasive cells. Like a chameleon, CTB are thus able to adapt to their immediate environment by phenocopying their neighbor cells. This review describes the different routes that CTB follow during their differentiation pathways, the regulation of these at the molecular level, it gives also an overview of the pathologies associated with faulty pathways and describes the usual phenotypic markers used to identify the different CTB subsets. This review is intended to stimulate investigators not acquainted with the field of placental biology to use CTB as a model to study important biological functions in vitro, such as cell fusion, cell invasion and cell transformation.
ISSN:1357-2725
1878-5875
DOI:10.1016/j.biocel.2004.05.014