Modulation of PAPP-A expression by PPARγ in human first trimester trophoblast

Pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A) is a metzincin metalloproteinase that cleaves the insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-dependent binding protein-4 and increases in maternal serum during pregnancy. In human placenta PAPP-A is expressed both in villous cytotrophoblasts (VCT) that cover the chorionic villi and in extravillous cytotrophoblasts (E.NICT) of the anchoring villi. Due to the key role of PPAR gamma in human trophoblast differentiation such as syncynotrophoblast formation and EVCT invasion, we studied the effect of PPAR gamma activation on PAPP-A expression using our in vitro model of EVCT and VCT primary cultures isolated from the same first trimester chorionic villi. First, we demonstrated that invasive EVCT expressed and secreted 10 times more PAPP-A than VCT did. Then, we showed that activation of PPAR gamma inhibited PAPP-A gene expression and secretion in EVCT, whereas it had no effect in VCT. Since we have previously shown that PPAR gamma agonist inhibits EVCT invasion in vitro, we suggest that PPAR gamma-mediated inhibition of PAPP-A might decrease the amount of bloactive IGFII, a factor known to promote trophoblast invasion.