Endoglin Expression and the Level of Tgf-Î’ Are Increased In the Placental Tissue and Correlated with Low Fetal Weight in Malaria Infected Mice

Abstract

Malaria infection during pregnancy can cause accumulation of infected-red blood cells in placental intervillous space and induces placental tissue inflammation and hypoxia. This condition triggers endoglin expression, and release of soluble endoglin which can interfere TGF-β binding to its receptor. The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between placental endoglin expression and TGF-β level with low fetal weight (LFW) in malaria-infected mice. Nine pregnant mice infected with Plasmodium berghei on the day 9^th post mating (malaria infected group) and eight normal pregnant mice (non-infected group) were used in this study. The mice were sacrificed on the day 18^th post mating, and all fetal body weights were measured by analytical scale. Enzyme Link Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) was done to determine the level of placental TGF-β while immunohistochemical staining was performed to examine endoglin expression in placental tissue. The mean of fetal body weights of malaria infected group was significantly lower than non-infected group (p=0,002), while the expression of placental endoglin in malaria infected group was significantly higher than non-infected group (p=0.003). The level of placental TGF-β in malaria infected group was also higher than non-infected group but the difference was not significant (p=0.064). Pearson correlation test showed that there were significant negative correlations between fetal body weights with the level of placental TGF-β (p=0.017, r=-0.568) and the expression of placental endoglin (p=0.002, r=-0.694). Malaria infection in pregnant mice will increase both TGF- β and endoglin in placenta tissue and correlate with low fetal weight.