University of Glasgow School of Medicine, Institute of Medical Genetics, Yorkhill Hospital, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2013 Aug 22;8(8):e71127. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0071127. eCollection 2013.
Placental oxidative stress is a feature of human labor. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) play a key role in cellular stress. We hypothesized that placental expression of the small HSP 27 would be altered during labor and expression would vary in different regions of the placenta. Six women in labor who delivered vaginally and 6 women not in labor, who were delivered by Cesarean section, were recruited. Four equally spaced pieces were sampled from the inner, middle and outer regions of each placenta (total 12 samples per placenta). HSP 27 expression was investigated by Western blot analysis and RT-PCR. For non-labor, there was less HSP 27 protein in the inner placenta region compared with both the middle region (p<0.05) and outer region (p<0.05). For labor, there was also less HSP 27 protein in the inner region compared with both the middle (p<0.02) and outer region (p<0.01). When the 3 regions of the placenta were compared for non-labor versus labor there was less HSP 27 in the labor group at both the inner (p<0.05) and middle regions (p<0.005) compared to non-labor. Similar to HSP 27 protein, there was less HSP 27 mRNA in the labor group in both the inner region (p<0.05) and middle region (p<0.02) compared to non-labor. This study suggests that placental HSP 27 may play a role in labor and is spatially controlled. The results have important implications for how data obtained from studies in the placenta can be influenced by sampling methods.
胎盘氧化应激是分娩的一个特征。热休克蛋白（HSPs）在细胞应激中起关键作用。我们假设在分娩过程中，小热休克蛋白 27 在胎盘的表达会发生改变，并且其表达在胎盘的不同区域也会有所不同。招募了 6 名阴道分娩的产妇和 6 名剖宫产的未产妇。从每个胎盘的内、中、外区域各取 4 个等间距的样本（每个胎盘共 12 个样本）。通过 Western blot 分析和 RT-PCR 检测 HSP 27 的表达。对于非分娩组，与中间区域（p<0.05）和外区域（p<0.05）相比，内区域的 HSP 27 蛋白较少。对于分娩组，与中间区域（p<0.02）和外区域（p<0.01）相比，内区域的 HSP 27 蛋白也较少。当比较非分娩组和分娩组的胎盘 3 个区域时，与非分娩组相比，分娩组在内区（p<0.05）和中区（p<0.005）的 HSP 27 较少。与 HSP 27 蛋白相似，在分娩组的内区（p<0.05）和中区（p<0.02）的 HSP 27 mRNA 也较少。本研究表明，胎盘 HSP 27 可能在分娩中起作用，并受到空间控制。这些结果对于如何通过采样方法影响从胎盘研究中获得的数据具有重要意义。
