Expression of hepatocyte growth factor and c-met in placenta from pregnancy complicated by PIH

Objective TO study the expression of Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and c-met in Placenta from normal pregnancy and pregnancy complicated by pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH) and their effects on the etiology of PIH. Methods Use the immunohistochemistory to determine the location and intensity of HGF and c-met staining in placenta from 20 cases of normal pregnancy and 58 cases of mild,middle and severe group of pregnancies complicated by PIH. Results Immunolocalization of HGF in all cases was observed mainly in villous core mesenchymal cells,decidual cells express little.The Intensity of HGF immnostaining was significantly reduced in the severe PIH group compared with the normal group(H=7.395,P=0.007),while it has no qualitative differences between the mild and middle PIH group and the normal group(H=0.869,P=0.351;H=0.017,P=0.817)。The stong immunostaining of c-met was observes in trophoblasts in the placentas,it also occured in the chronic vascular endometrical cells of villous,The intensity of c-met in sever PIH group was significantly higher than that of the normal late pregnant group(H=4.577,P=0.032),While it has no qualitative differences between the mild and middle PIH with the normal group(H=0.178,P=0.673;H=0.824,P=0.364).There was negative correlation between the intensity of HGF and that of c-met in placenta(χ 2:7.809,P=0.005). Conclusions These results suggest that HGF is secreted mainly by villous core mesenchymal cells in human placenta and the reduced HGF may be responsible for the shallow implantation and impaired vascular development in PIH.