Biomed Pap Med Fac Univ Palacky Olomouc Czech Repub. 2022, 166(3):267-273 | DOI: 10.5507/bp.2021.026

Zdenek Tauber, Katerina Cizkova Department of Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Palacky University Olomouc, Czech Republic

Aims: Hofbauer cells (HBCs) are placental macrophages playing various roles during normal and complicated pregnancies, and of the latter, chorioamnionitis is the most frequent.

Methods: In placenta with chorioamnionitis, we examined immunohistochemical expression profiles of IL-1β, IL-10, and their potential regulators, CYP2C8 and soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH), in Hofbauer cells and compared the results with our previously published data for normal placenta.

Results: We found that the expression profiles of the studied proteins in Hofbauer cells in chorioamnionitis differs from normal placenta. In chorioamnionitis, HBCs showed a moderate expression of IL-1β together with a weak expression of IL-10 and CYP2C8. Contrary to normal placenta, HBCs in chorioamnionitis express sEH. We demonstrated a moderate positive correlation between the expression of CYP2C8 and sEH in chorioamnionitis (Spearman r = 0.5654), suggesting enhanced degradation of anti-inflammatory epoxyeicosatrienoic acids. Moreover, the relations of IL-1β and IL-10 to CYP2C8, previously described in normal placenta, disappeared. Furthermore, a weak expression of anti-inflammatory IL-10 in chorioamnionitis was accompanied by change in circularity of HBCs (Spearman r = 0.8193).

Conclusion: Taken together, these findings suggest a possible alteration of the anti-inflammatory role of HBCs and its regulation in chorioamnionitis.

Keywords: placental macrophages, chorioamnionitis, pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines, CYP epoxygenases

Tauber, Z., & Cizkova, K. (2022). The anti-inflammatory role of placental Hofbauer cells is altered in patients with chorioamnionitis: Are CYP2C8 and soluble epoxide hydrolase involved in immunomodulation? Biomedical Papers,166(3),267-273. doi:10.5507/bp.2021.026

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.