Vascular and cellular changes accompany altered expression of angiopoietins in placenta of non-complicated ART pregnancies.

BACKGROUND: ART is steadily performed for infertility cases and most of the previous researches have focused on complicated pregnancies. Nonetheless, few ones have concerned with placenta of ART in non-complicated pregnancies.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the expression of angiopoietins (ANG) and their receptor, TIE-2, in placenta of full-term non-complicated pregnancies having ART (n=28) versus those with spontaneous conception (n=28) together with the histological as well as morphometric analysis.

RESULTS: While no prominent changes were noticed in the histological structure of the placenta ART pregnancies, it showed a significant decrease (p<0.05) in the percentage of syncytial area and numbers of syncytial knots with insignificant reduction in the placental villous area. Vascular changes in the form of significant decrease (p<0.05) in the chorionic vessel diameter and significant increase (p<0.05) in percentage of vessel area were detected in the ART placenta. In addition, the levels ANG-1, ANG-2 and TIE-2 were significantly increased (p<0.05) in the ART placentas compared with those of SC.

CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated that there is an altered expression of angiopoietins accompanying the morphometric changes occurring in placenta of ART pregnancies. These changes may indicate vascular and cellular adaptation mechanism for a potential subclinical hypoxia in placenta of ART even in non-complicated pregnancies.