Gene expression profiles of trophoblast cell lines

Invasive extravillous trophoblasts (EVTs) of the human placenta are critically involved in successful pregnancy outcome since they remodel the uterine spiral arteries to increase blood flow and oxygen delivery to the placenta and the developing fetus. To gain more insights into their biological role different primary cell culture models are commonly utilised. However, access to early placental tissue may be limited and primary trophoblasts rapidly cease proliferation in vitro impairing genetic manipulation. Hence, trophoblastic cell lines have been widely used as surrogates to study EVT function. Although the cell lines share some molecular marker expression with their primary counterpart, it is unknown to what extent they recapture the invasive phenotype of EVT. Therefore, we here report the first thorough GeneChip analyses of SGHPL-5, HTR-8/SVneo, BeWo, JEG-3 and the novel ACH-3P trophoblast cells in comparison to previously analysed primary villous cytrophoblasts and extravillous trophoblasts. To identify EVT-specific gene expression signatures in trophoblast cell lines, we calcuted differentially expressed genes between pre-defined groups based on the distinct origins of the five trophoblast cell lines under investigation. Comparison 1 comprised EVT, HTR-8/Svneo and SGHPL-5 vs choriocarcinoma cells (ACH-3P, BeWo, JEG-3). Comparison 2 comprised EVT, ACH-3P, BeWo, JEG-3 vs extravillous trophoblast cell lines (HTR-8/SVneo, SGHPL-5).