Elsevier

Placenta

Volume 34, Issue 9, September 2013, Pages 836-839
Placenta

Short communication
Comparative phenotypic characterization of human cord blood monocytes and placental macrophages at term

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.placenta.2013.05.007Get rights and content

Abstract

The expression of surface molecules in cord blood monocytes and placental macrophages was studied using flow cytometry. When compared with monocytes, macrophages presented a decrease in HLA-DR and LAP/TGF-β1 levels and increased expression of alternative activation markers, especially CD206. No difference in the production of the apoptotic factors TRAIL and TWEAK was observed, whereas the levels of cytokine receptors in monocytes were significantly higher than in macrophages. Most remarkable was the difference in the expression of IL-17 and TNFα receptors. A strong correlation between VEGF and TNFα receptors was revealed in both cell populations. The results obtained in this study provide antigenic phenotypes for two related cell populations and outline the feasible functional alterations during tissue macrophage differentiation.

Introduction

There is now little doubt that placental macrophages (Hofbauer cells) are of fetal, rather than maternal, origin. At the early gestational stage, macrophages differentiate from mesenchymal cells within the stroma of developing chorionic villi [1], [2], [3]. Later, the arrangement of embryo placental blood circulation allows the replenishment of the tissue macrophage population by means of extra-placental hematopoietic sources. The existence of transitional forms between monocytes and macrophages suggests that bone marrow-originated monocytes are predecessors of placental macrophages [4]. In accordance with the current concept, the macrophage pool in placenta villous tissue is sustained to a great extent by recruiting fetal blood monocytes [5], [6], [7]. However, the phenotypic and functional properties of mononuclear phagocytes in the placenta remain poorly characterized.

In this study we evaluated the expression of surface molecules in cord blood monocytes and placental macrophages in order to further elucidate their phenotypes and to reveal differences in the antigenic profiles between these related cell populations.

Section snippets

Methods

Placental tissue and cord blood were obtained after elective caesarian section at term for uncomplicated pregnancy (37–41 weeks). All sample collections and experiments were approved by the Ethic Committee of the Institute for Obstetrics and Gynecology. Clinical characteristics of the placentas studied are given in Table 1 [8].

Cord blood was diluted with Cell Wash buffer (BD Biosciences, San Diego, CA) and subjected to density gradient centrifugation on Histopaque®-1077 (Sigma, St Louis, MO)

Results and discussion

The results of the study are shown in Table 2.

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