Fig. 4

The effect of hypoxia and inflammatory cytokines on PEG10 expression in cytotrophoblast stem cells. First-trimester human cytotrophoblast stem cells (hTSCs) or term primary cytotrophoblast were exposed to (A-B). PEG10 mRNA expression was significantly reduced in hTSCs exposed to hypoxia (1% oxygen) relative to normoxia (8% oxygen) (A). A similar finding was observed when primary term trophoblast were exposed to hypoxia (B). Next, hTSCs were treated with increasing doses of TNFα (0, 0.1, 1 and 10 ng/mL) and showed a dose-dependent reduction in PEG10 expression when compared to vehicle-treated controls (C). No changes in PEG10 expression were observed in cells with increasing doses (0, 0.1, 1, 10 ng/mL) of IL-6 (D). Data is presented as a median with interquartile range. Individual symbols represent n = 5 experimental repeats and P** < 0.01