Shilpi Sehgal

All Publications

• The effects of leptin on human cytotrophoblast invasion are gestational age and dose-dependent. Frontiers in endocrinology Rumer, K. K., Sehgal, S., Kramer, A., Bogart, K. P., Winn, V. D. 2024; 15: 1386309

  Abstract

  Leptin and its receptors are expressed by the human placenta throughout gestation, yet the role of leptin in early human placental development is not well characterized. Leptin is overexpressed in the placentas from preeclamptic (PE) pregnancies. PE can result from the impaired invasion of fetal placental cells, cytotrophoblasts (CTBs), into the maternal decidua. We hypothesized that elevated leptin levels would impair human CTB invasion.The effects of leptin on the invasion of human CTBs were evaluated in three cell models, HTR-8/SVneo cells, primary CTBs, and placental villous explants using invasion assays. Further, leptin receptor expression was characterized in all three cell models using RT-PCR. Further phosphokinase assays were performed in HTR-8/SVneo cells to determine signaling pathways involved in CTB invasion in response to differential leptin doses.We found that, prior to 8 weeks gestation, leptin promoted CTB invasion in the explant model. After 11 weeks gestation in explants, primary CTBs and in HTR-8/SVneo cells, leptin promoted invasion at moderate but not at high concentrations. Further, leptin receptor characterization revealed that leptin receptor expression did not vary over gestation, however, STAT, PI3K and MAPK pathways showed different signaling in response to varied leptin doses.These data suggest that the excess placental leptin observed in PE may cause impaired CTB invasion as a second-trimester defect. Leptin's differential effect on trophoblast invasion may explain the role of hyperleptinemia in preeclampsia pathogenesis.

  View details for DOI 10.3389/fendo.2024.1386309

  View details for PubMedID 38846494

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC11154010

• Placental Expression of Stanniocalcin 2 (STC2) in Healthy and Preeclamptic Pregnancies Kjaer, A. L., Sehgal, S., Wu, Y., Iyer, P., Winn, V. D. MOSBY-ELSEVIER. 2023: S92-S93

  View details for Web of Science ID 000909337400121

• Siglec-6 Signaling Uses Src Kinase Tyrosine Phosphorylation and SHP-2 Recruitment. Cells Stefanski, A. L., Renecle, M. D., Kramer, A., Sehgal, S., Narasimhan, P., Rumer, K. K., Winn, V. D. 2022; 11 (21)

  Abstract

  Preeclampsia is a pregnancy-specific disorder involving placental abnormalities. Elevated placental Sialic acid immunoglobulin-like lectin (Siglec)-6 expression has been correlated with preeclampsia. Siglec-6 is a transmembrane receptor, expressed predominantly by the trophoblast cells in the human placenta. It interacts with sialyl glycans such as sialyl-TN glycans as well as binds leptin. Siglec-6 overexpression has been shown to influence proliferation, apoptosis, and invasion in the trophoblast (BeWo) cell model. However, there is no direct evidence that Siglec-6 plays a role in preeclampsia pathogenesis and its signaling potential is still largely unexplored. Siglec-6 contains an immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motif (ITIM) and an ITIM-like motif in its cytoplasmic tail suggesting a signaling function. Site-directed mutagenesis and transfection were employed to create a series of Siglec-6 expressing HTR-8/SVneo trophoblastic cell lines with mutations in specific functional residues to explore the signaling potential of Siglec-6. Co-immunoprecipitation and inhibitory assays were utilized to investigate the association of Src-kinases and SH-2 domain-containing phosphatases with Siglec-6. In this study, we show that Siglec-6 is phosphorylated at ITIM and ITIM-like domains by Src family kinases. Phosphorylation of both ITIM and ITIM-like motifs is essential for the recruitment of phosphatases like Src homology region 2 containing protein tyrosine phosphatase 2 (SHP-2), which has downstream signaling capabilities. These findings suggest Siglec-6 as a signaling molecule in human trophoblasts. Further investigation is warranted to determine which signaling pathways are activated downstream to SHP-2 recruitment and how overexpression of Siglec-6 in preeclamptic placentas impacts pathogenesis.

  View details for DOI 10.3390/cells11213427

  View details for PubMedID 36359823