Nadejda Capatina, Myriam Hemberger, Graham Burton, Erica Watson, and Hong Wa Yung
Key points
Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress promotes placental dysmorphogenesis and is associated with poor pregnancy outcomes.
We show that unfolded protein response signalling pathways located in the ER drive differentiation of mouse trophoblast stem cells into trophoblast subtypes involved in development of the placental labyrinth zone and trophoblast invasion.
In a mouse model of chronic ER stress (Eif2s1tm1RjK), higher ER stress in homozygous blastocysts is accompanied by reduced trophectoderm cell number and developmental delay and also is associated with an increased incidence of early pregnancy loss.
Administration of the chemical chaperone, tauroursodeoxycholic acid, toEif2s1+/tm1RjKheterozygous females during pregnancy alleviated ER stress in the mutant placenta, restored normal trophoblast populations and reduced the frequency of early pregnancy loss.
Our results suggest that alleviation of intrauterine ER stress could provide a potential therapeutic target to improve pregnancy outcome in women with pre-gestational metabolic or gynaecological conditions.
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