Abstract
BACKGROUND: The present research focuses on preeclampsia (PE), a clinically relevant pregnancy disease. To date, the majority of research on PE was centered on placental insufficiency. However, the genes that regulate these processes, and the exact molecular mechanisms modulating these processes, are still unclear. METHODS: We obtained placentae from a clinically well-specified group of patients with preeclampsia and gestationally matched control pregnancies in order to evaluate the expression of homeobox gene DLX3 by immunohistochemical staining, real-time PCR, and Western immunoblotting and determine the function of DLX3 utilizing lentivirus transfection in HTR-8/SVneo cells. RESULTS: In the present study, we detected DLX3 expression in a clinically well defined cohort of preeclampsia-affected and gestation-matched control pregnancies. As opposed to the controls, DLX3 was overexpressed in preeclampsia-affected placentae. Moreover, we found that the in vitro cell growth and invasive ability of HTR8/SVneo cells was enhanced by the exogenous overexpression of DLX3 (P < 0.05). It can be seen that DLX3 influences the cell cycle of HTR-8/SVneo cells in vitro. CONCLUSIONS: DLX3 has been shown to be strongly related to normal placental growth as well as the pathophysiology of preeclampsia. The imbalanced expression of DLX3 may perform an integral function in the occurrence and progression of preeclampsia.