Decidual Endothelial Cells (DEC) and endothelial cells from human skin (ADMEC). Homo sapiens

BACKGROUND: endothelial cells (ECs) form a continuous barrier between blood and tissues and gate the traffic of molecules and cells across the vessel wall playing an active role in hemostasis, inflammation and immunity. Decidual endothelial cells (DECs) are located in a very special district from the immunological and inflammatory point of view since decidua has immunoregulatory and pro-angiogenic functions. The aim of this study was to compare the phenotype of microvascular ECs isolated from decidua with microvascular ECs isolated from other vascular districts. METHOD: we analyzed the differences in molecules involved in angiogenesis and leukocyte recruitment between DECs and endothelial cells from human skin (ADMECs) which are normally involved in inflammatory response by microarray analysis. RESULTS: our results showed that DECs are able to produce high amount of the growth factors HGF, VEGF-A and IGFBP3, important for the control of angiogenesis and express the adhesion molecules ICAM2 and ICAM3 in basal condition, important molecules for the control of leukocyte recruitment and function. We demonstrated also that DECs do not up-regulate the expression of ICAM1 in response to pro-inflammatory cytokines and produce high amount of the chemokines CXCL9/MIG and CXCL10/IP-10 in response to IFN-a. CONCLUSION: we conclude that the phenotype of these cells strongly differs from that of other endothelial cells such as ADMECs which have to be quickly able to response to infections and other pro-inflammatory stimuli. These data suggest that endothelial cells may play an active in the control of local immune response at foeto-maternal interface. Overall design: Single color gene expression in human endothelial cells. Six independent experiments (3 DEC vs 3 ADMEC) were performed using different donors for each experiment.

研究背景：内皮细胞（endothelial cells, ECs）是血液与组织间的连续屏障，可调控分子与细胞跨血管壁的转运过程，在止血、炎症及免疫应答中发挥主动调控作用。蜕膜内皮细胞（decidual endothelial cells, DECs）所处的微环境具有独特的免疫与炎症特征——蜕膜组织本身具备免疫调节与促血管生成的功能。本研究旨在对比分离自蜕膜的微血管内皮细胞与其他血管区域分离的微血管内皮细胞的表型差异。
研究方法：本研究通过基因芯片分析，对比了DECs与人类皮肤微血管内皮细胞（ADMECs）在血管生成及白细胞募集相关分子的表达差异，其中ADMECs通常参与炎症应答过程。
研究结果：本研究发现，DECs可大量分泌HGF、VEGF-A及IGFBP3等调控血管生成的关键生长因子，并在基础状态下表达黏附分子ICAM2与ICAM3——这类分子对白细胞募集与功能调控至关重要。此外，本研究证实DECs不会在促炎细胞因子刺激下上调ICAM1的表达，且可在IFN-α刺激下大量分泌趋化因子CXCL9/MIG与CXCL10/IP-10。
研究结论：本研究表明，DECs的表型与其他内皮细胞（如需快速响应感染及其他促炎刺激的ADMECs）存在显著差异。上述结果提示，内皮细胞可在母胎界面的局部免疫应答调控中发挥主动作用。
实验整体设计：采用单色基因表达检测技术分析人类内皮细胞。本研究共开展6次独立实验，每次实验均使用不同供体的细胞，每组设置3例DECs样本与3例ADMECs样本。