The Expressions Of Notch/Snail/E-Cadherin In Human Early Pregnancy Chorionic Villous Regulated By Mifepristone

Notch signaling is an evolutionarily conserved pathway taking part in many developmental and cell type specification processes.Notch signaling plays a very important role in embryonic implantation,embryogenesis and vascular development. Mifepristone is commonly used for clinical medical abortion.But little is known about the relationship between Mifepristone and Notch signaling pathway in terminating human early pregnancy.Our study is aim to investigate the relationship between Notch signaling pathway and the effects of Miferprisone on terminating human early pregnancy.The study was divided into 2 parts:1) the influence of Mifepristone on the expression of Notch-1 gene; 2) the influence of Mifepristone on the expressions of Notch downstream genes(Snail and E-Cadherin) and the Notch ligand(Dll-4).Part One The effect of Mifepristone on the expression of Notch-1 geneObjective:to investigate the effect of different doses(100mg,150mg,200mg) of Mifepristone on the expression of Notch-1 gene.Methods:the 80 samples of human early pregnancy chorionic villous were obtained from uterine evacuation.They were divided into 4 groups:Group 1 was the control group(no Mifepristone was taken),Group2-4 had taken 100-mg,150-mg and 200-mg Mifepristone respectively before uterine evacuation.RT-qPCR and immunohistochemistry(IHC) were carded out to analyze the expression of Notch-1 gene.Results:compared with other groups,the expression of Notch-1 gene was significantly increased in 200-mg group(P＜0.05 );in 100-mg group the expression of Notch-1 had no significant difference compared with the control one;in 150-mg group,the expression of Notch-1 mRNA was significantly increased(P＜0.05) while Notch-1 protein was no significant difference(P＞0.05) compared with that of the control one.Notch-1 protein was mainly localized in the cytoplasm of trophoblasts.Conclusions:Mifepristone could increase the expression of Notch-1 gene which might play a role in the process of adherence and implantation of embryo.Part Two The effect of Mifepristone on the expressions of the downstream genes and the ligand of Notch signalingObjective:to investigate the effect of different doses(100mg,150mg,200mg) of Mifepristone on the expressions of the downstream genes(Snail and E-Cadherin) and ligand(Dll-4) of Notch signaling pathway.Methods:the 4 groups had been described in part one.RT-qPCR was carried out to detect the expressions of Snail,E-Caherin and Dll-4 mRNA and IHC for localization and semi-quantity of Snail and E-Cadherin proteinResults:Compared with the control group,the expression of Snail gene significantly increased in 200-mg group(P＜0.05);the expression of E-Cadherin mRNA was no significant differences between groups(P＞0.05) while the expression of E-Cadherin protein was significantly decreased in 200-mg group(P＜0.05);there was no significant differences between groups of Dll-4 mRNA(P＞0.05).Snail was expressed in the nuclear and E-Cadherin was expressed in the membrane of trophoblasts.Conclusions:the effect of Mifepristone to terminate early pregnancy might involve Notch signaling pathway(Notch-1,Snail,E-Cadherin) to change the cell adherence of trophoblasts.