Histochemical characterization of the surface mucoprotein of normal and abnormal human trophoblast

Preliminary Observations on the Histochemistry of the Cell Surface of Carcinoma of the Cervix

“…It is obvious from these studies that the histochemical composition of the cell coat and intercellular matrix differs markedly from that of trophoblast. The latter is characterized by the presence of a mucosubstance with a high degree of sulphation (Bradbury et al, 1970) which is lacking in the carcinomatous cells. The malignant cells, and the normal cells of the cervix, however, do possess appreciable quantities of hyaluronic acid and sialic acid (or closely related compounds) which possibly act in a similar manner to the highly sulphated cell coat of the trophoblast.…”

“…IT has recently been suggested that the mucosubstances located at the cell surface may act in some way as a barrier to the detection of antigens by a host (Kirby et al, 1964;Currie, 1967;Lindenmann and Klein, 1967 Sanford, 1967;Bradbury et al, 1970); this may be termed the "antigen-masking" hypothesis. Support for this hypothesis comes both from studies of normal tissues, such as trophoblast (Kirby et al, 1964;Bradbury et at., 1965) as well as certain tumour cells, e.g.…”

“…ascitic tumours in mice (Currie and Bagshawe, 1968;Bagshawe, 1969). In the case of trophoblast a highly sulphated mucoprotein has been demonstrated at the cell surface (Bradbury et al, 1970) and it has been suggested that this substance is responsible for the masking of the antigenic expression of the foetal tissues. Defendi and Gasic (1963) showed that treatment of ascites tumour cells with neuraminidase caused loss of the surface mucoprotein layer.…”

Galactosyltransferase Activity of the Microvillous Surface of Human Placental Syncytial Trophoblast

“…The syncytial trophoblast that covers the chorionic villi has a glycocalyx [3,10] which has been suggested to play a role in the immunologic protection of the fetus [1.24] and probably contains receptors for immunoglobulin and hormones [7,9,19], Because of its surface loca tion on the placental villus, this glycocalyx is continually exposed to hydro lytic enzymes present in blood (e.g. galactosidase) [14] that would have the potential of cleaving glycocalyx components.…”

Negative surface charge of abnormal human trophoblast.

“…The trophoblastic surface mucin has recently received special interest from researchers in the field of reproductive physiology (2,4,5,6,7,9,17,18,19). The mucin is considered to play an important role in blastocyst attachment to the endometrium (18), and to prevent rejection of the fetus by the mother via a masking off the fetal surface antigen.…”