Kidney-Replenishing Herb Induces SOCS-3 Expression via ERKMAPK Pathway and Improves Growth of the First-Trimester Human Trophoblast Cells

Abstract EN

Kidney-replenishing herb is a traditional medicine formula in China which has been widely used for clinical treatment of recurrent miscarriage.

Our previous study showed that Kidney-replenishing herb could promote proliferation and inhibit apoptosis of the human first-trimester trophoblasts.

In the present study, we further explored the potential mechanism and signal pathway of Kidney-replenishing herb on human trophoblast cells.

Our research showed that Kidney-replenishing herb stimulated proliferation and reduced apoptosis of human trophoblast cells in vitro, and this appeared to be positive correlation with SOCS-3 transcription, suggesting that Kidney-replenishing herb regulated biological functions of human trophoblast cells by inducing SCOS-3 expression.

Furthermore, the Kidney-replenishing herb treatment stimulated the phosphorylation of ERK1/2, and blocking the signaling pathway by mitogen-activated protein MAPK (MEK) inhibitor, U0126, inhibited Kidney-replenishing herb-induced SOCS-3 transcription, depressed proliferation, and promoted apoptosis of human trophoblasts.

Kidney-replenishing herbs still induced ERK1/2 phosphorylation after SOCS-3 siRNA silence.

Overexpression of SOCS-3 stimulated the proliferation of trophoblast.

These findings suggest that SOCS-3 expression is induced by Kidney-replenishing herbs via activation of MAPK pathways, and this may possibly be involved in promoting human trophoblast cells growth which is contributed to embryo development.