Apoptosis in human term placenta - A morphological and gene expression study

The objective of this study was to examine placentas after delivery from no rmal, healthy patients at term gestation. The placentas were from elective cesarean sections (n = 10, prior to the onset of labor) and spontaneous vag inal delivery (n = 10, after labor). We found that deoxyribonucleic acid la ddering was present in all placentas and consistent with the pattern found in tissues that undergo apoptosis. Paraffin-embedded sections of placental villi stained by the in situ terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase mediated biotinylated dUTP nick end labeling method revealed positive apoptotic nuc lei in the placental villi. Reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction demonstrated expression of messenger RNA for testosterone-repressed prosta te message 2 and B cell lymphoma/leukemia-2 in the placenta. Our data demon strate that apoptosis occurs in human term placenta. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel.