Comparative analysis of the invasion-associated genes expression pattern in first trimester trophoblastic (HTR-8/SVneo) and JEG-3 choriocarcinoma cells.

Several cellular models of trophoblast have been proposed to understand their invasion. We had reported that JEG-3 and HTR-8/SVneo cells show differential invasive behavior in response to IL-11 treatment. So, the present study aims to compare the expression of invasion-associated molecules in these two cell lines by performing cDNA microarray followed by quantitative RT-PCR. We have observed that HTR-8/SVneo cells have significantly higher invasiveness than JEG-3 cells, which might be due to higher expression of proteases and signaling intermediates of JAK/STAT and MAPK signaling pathways. Like extravillous trophoblasts (EVTs), a higher expression of functionally significant proteases like MMP1, MMP2, MMP9, PLAU etc in HTR-8/SVneo cells, project them as a close mimic of EVTs under in vitro conditions.