Molecular Human Reproduction, Vol. 6, No. 11, 1027-1032,
November 2000
© 2000 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology
Pregnancy |
Altered subcellular distribution of cadherin-5 in endothelial cells caused by the serum of pre-eclamptic patients
1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Ulm, 2 Department of Biochemistry, University of Ulm, Germany and 3 Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (I.M.P.), Vienna, Austria
Abstract
The main clinical features of pre-eclampsia are oedema and vascular leakage. Cadherin-5 mediates endothelial cell–cell contact in the vascular endothelium and may regulate permeability as a vascular function. Therefore, we addressed the question of whether pre-eclampsia alters cadherin-5 expression and intracellular distribution. Confluent human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) were incubated with 20% serum from patients with pre-eclampsia (n = 18), haemolysis–elevated liver enzymes–low platelet syndrome (HELLP) (n = 12), pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) (n = 18) or normal pregnancy (n = 10). After incubation with sera from patients with pre-eclampsia, immunostaining analyses showed cadherin-5 accumulation in vesicular and tubular structures of the Golgi apparatus. Immunoblot analyses of HUVEC after pre-eclampsia serum incubation showed an increase of the stable form of cadherin-5 while degradation products decreased. Degradation of cadherin-5 takes place at the cell membrane, so this decrease may be due to a decrease of cadherin-5 in the cell membrane. The accumulation of cadherin-5 in the vesicular and tubular structures of the Golgi apparatus indicates that targeting of cadherin-5 to the plasma membrane could be disrupted. We suggest that intracellular retention of cadherin-5 caused by serum factors in patients with pre-eclampsia may decrease the number of adhesion complexes in the cell membrane, thereby contributing to endothelial dysfunction.
adhesion molecules/cadherin-5/endothelial dysfunction/pre-eclampsia/vascular endothelium
Notes
4 To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Ulm, D-89075 Ulm, Germany. E-mail: tanja.groten{at}medizin.uni-ulm.de
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