Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM1) gene polymorphisms in endometriosis, Mol Hum Reprod 9

Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) is a ligand for the integrins lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1 (LFA-1) and complement receptor-3 (Mac-1), making it an important partic-ipant in many immune and inflammatory processes. Previous studies suggested that lack or reduced expression of ICAM-1 on trophoblast might partially explain its resistance to lysis by cy-totoxic effectors. However, whether or not the adhesion mole-cule is expressed on placental cells is still a matter of debate. In this study, we determined ICAM-1 expression at mRNA, sur-face, and soluble protein levels on human trophoblasts through-out their functional differentiation in culture from cytotropho-blasts into syncytiotrophoblasts. Placental cells were obtained from 6 term placentas derived from normal pregnancies. ICAM-1 mRNA was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain