Interleukin-1beta stimulates placental leucine aminopeptidase/oxytocinase expression in BeWo choriocarcinoma cells.

In addition to prostaglandins, inflammatory cytokines induce uterine contraction via oxytocin (OT). Placental leucine aminopeptidase (P-LAP), an oxytocinase that is identical to cystine aminopeptidase, destroys OT activity. Patients with spontaneous preterm delivery have higher concentrations of inflammatory cytokines and lower P-LAP activities than those with normal delivery. In addition, the P-LAP promoter region contains putative binding sites for cytokine-induced transcription factors. We therefore postulated that inflammatory cytokines suppress P-LAP expression and examined this notion using BeWo choriocarcinoma cells cultured in the presence of cytokines. However, interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) increased P-LAP activity in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, Western blot analysis showed a dose-dependent increase of P-LAP proteins. We also detected IL-1 type I receptor mRNA in BeWo cells by RT-PCR. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR and Southern blot analysis showed that IL-1beta also increased P-LAP mRNA, which was abrogated by prior exposure to cycloheximide. Luciferase assays did not reveal any regulatory regions that could explain IL-1beta-induced P-LAP mRNA accumulation within 1.1 kb upstream of the P-LAP gene. Immunohistochemical analysis of human placenta with chorioamnionitis demonstrated prominent P-LAP staining at sites of abundant inflammatory cell infiltration. These findings indicated that prolonged exposure to IL-1beta induces P-LAP in the trophoblasts, possibly via other de-novo protein synthesis, which contradicted our initial hypothesis.