Funding outcome

The placenta is an organ that is only present during pregnancy. It delivers nutrients and other essential factors from the mother to the developing baby. To do this, the placenta must take up, or internalize, things from the mother's blood. This is done by a special type of cell on the surface of the placenta. These cells internalize things from the mother's blood in multiple ways. One process of internalization is called endocytosis. It is known that in several common pregnancy complications that placental cells do not properly carry out endocytosis. This problem with placental endocytosis may contribute to the development of disease. These diseases during pregnancy can mean that babies are born very early and growth restricted, which means very small. Growth restriction leads a lifelong increased risk of disease for the baby. There are currently no treatments for growth restriction. Importantly, though we know that there are changes in the endocytosis of specific proteins in growth restriction, we do not understand what exactly goes wrong to cause this. There is also very little information known about how placentas control endocytosis in a normal pregnancy. In this project we aim to understand what controls endocytosis in the cells that form the surface of the placenta. We hypothesize that one group of proteins, the atypical protein kinase Cs (aPKC), may control placental endocytosis. Therefore, we will identify how proteins are endocytosed by the placenta, and if aPKC is involved in the process. We will use human placenta in cell culture with labelled proteins to monitor endocytosis. This will allow for future work examining what goes wrong with endocytosis in pregnancy complications. Ultimately, leading to the identification of potential treatments for pregnancy conditions and improved health for mothers and their babies.