Peer-reviewed article
Regulation of placental development and function by ubiquitination.
Xue Wang, Xiaoqing Li, Shanshan Yuan, Zhiju Gu, Zihao An et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This is a scientific review of placental development at the molecular level, focusing on how ubiquitination (a cellular process) regulates placental function and development. It discusses how improper placental development can lead to pregnancy complications like preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction. The review aims to summarize molecular mechanisms and potential drug targets related to ubiquitination in pregnancy diseases.
Key points
- Placental development is crucial for nutrient distribution between mother and fetus during pregnancy
- Imperfect placental development can cause preeclampsia, recurrent miscarriage, and fetal growth restriction
- Ubiquitination affects key placental processes including blastocyst implantation, syncytiotrophoblast differentiation, and immune barrier maintenance
- Current understanding of human placenta mechanisms remains incomplete
- Ubiquitination-related pathways are being explored as potential drug targets for pregnancy complications
Limitations
This is a molecular biology review article focused on cellular mechanisms, not an empirical study of child health outcomes or interventions for children. It does not evaluate any specific intervention or provide data on child well-being.
Abstract
The proper distribution of nutrients and metabolites between the mother and fetus is one important factor for successful pregnancy. As a bridge, the placenta plays a key role in sensing the nutritional needs of the fetus, coordinating the maternal nutrition supply, and enhancing its nutritional transport capabilities. Imperfect placental development can lead to pregnancy-related disorders such as preeclampsia, recurrent miscarriage, and/or fetal growth restriction, posing risks to both mother and child in the short and long term. However, current understanding of the human placenta remains as a "black box", and its developmental control mechanisms for adaptive pregnant regulation still needs to be elucidated. As one form of post-translational modification (PTM), ubiquitination plays an important role in regulating cellular functions and is regarded as a valuable drug target. Particularly, ubiquitination related to placenta development has been discovered in recent years. Placental development processes closely associated with pregnant complications, such as blastocyst implantation, syncytiotrophoblast cell differentiation, and immune barrier maintenance, have been reported to be affected by ubiquitination. However, the diagnosis and intervention of pregnancy diseases also urgently need to be improved. Thus, aiming to comprehensive summarize and further exploring the molecular mechanism, target and regulatory mechanism of pregnancy complications, we have herein reviewed genes and pathways regulating pregnancy progress and diseases and focusing on ubiquitin-related physiological process in placenta.