Journal article

Blocking Endogenous Leukemia Inhibitory Factor during Placental Development in Mice Leads to Abnormal Placentation and Pregnancy Loss

A Winship, J Correia, T Krishnan, E Menkhorst, C Cuman, JG Zhang, NA Nicola, E Dimitriadis

Scientific Reports | Published : 2015

Abstract

The placenta forms the interface between the maternal and fetal circulation and is critical for the establishment of a healthy pregnancy. Specialized trophoblast cells derived from the embryonic trophectoderm play a pivotal role in the establishment of the placenta. Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is one of the predominant cytokines present in the placenta during early pregnancy. LIF has been shown to regulate trophoblast adhesion and invasion in vitro, however its precise role in vivo is unknown. We hypothesized that LIF would be required for normal placental development in mice. LIF and LIFRα were immunolocalized to placental trophoblasts and fetal vessels in mouse implantation sites duri..

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Grants

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council


Funding Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Phil Morgan of WEHI for his technical assistance in the production of PEGLA. We acknowledge the support of the Victorian Government's Operational Infrastructure Support Program and the Australian Government NHMRC IRIISS. ED and NAN were supported by NHMRC Fellowships (#550905 and #637300, respectively). EM was supported by NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (#611827), JGZ and NAN were supported by an NHMRC Program Grant (#1016647). AW was supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award.