Influence of melatonin and inflammation in human placenta in normal and preeclamptic pregnancies

• Grant number: 13/17432-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: October 15, 2013
• End date: February 14, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Maternal and Child Health
• Principal Investigator: Rodrigo Ruano
• Grantee: Eugênia Maria Assunção Salustiano
• Supervisor: Cathy Vaillancourt
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FM). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS), Canada
• Associated to the scholarship: 12/07762-0 - Serum profile of melatonin, cytokines and cortisol in pregnant women with preeclampsia, BP.DD

Abstract

Placenta is an unique organ that allows two independent bodies with different immunological profiles to live together. Preeclampsia (PE) responsible to change the placental and decidual immune function. The relevance of inflammatory process for the initiation of PE is supported by the increased placental vascular resistance and oxidative stress, which leads to activation of inflammatory process in villous trophoblasts. In PE the placenta is in a chronic with hypoxic or hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) state, under both condition, massive numbers of free radicals damage the trophoblasts and release a wide rage of factors that promote inflammation. These factors may block melatonin production in the pineal gland, and induce the synthesis of melatonin by immune competent cells. Vaillancourt's group showed that melatonin markedly reduced both apoptosis and oxidative stress in a good in vitro model to study the effect of melatonin on trophoblast inflammation. We propose that H/R increase pro-inflammatory cytokine production and melatonin reverse this inflammation-induced by H/R in syncytiotrophoblast. (AU)