Aldehyde dehydrogenase protein: a placental glycogen trophoblast marker suitable to monitor placental pathologies

Abstract

This study focuses on developing new approaches to identify and quantify glycogen trophoblast cells in the placenta. Due to limitations with currently available methods, alternative markers for these cells are being explored. Here we report on one promising candidate, Aldh1a3, a gene that was recently shown to be expressed in the mouse placenta only in glycogen trophoblast cells and their progenitors. Our study validates ALDH1A3 protein as glycogen trophoblast marker in the mouse placenta with high specificity when compared to CDKN1C (p57KIP2). This marker will be useful for the isolation of the glycogen trophoblast subpopulation and facilitate examining its function in placental programming and understanding its role in pathological pregnancy models. Furthermore, trophoblast giant cells with high expression of ALDH1A3 were detected in the decidua of human term placentas. These were interspersed with extravillous interstitial trophoblast cells or were located distal of the interstitial trophoblast layer of the decidua basalis.