Italian Journal of Anatomy and Embryology - contenuto non piu disponibile

TRAIL is a member of the TNF family of cytokines that influences many functions including cell death, immune response and inflammation1. In a previous study on cul-tured HUVEC we demonstrated that TRAIL is able to activate eNOS and to increase NO release and prostanoid production1 that play a crucial role in endothelial cells func-tion2. Since hyperglycaemia can result in endothelial injury, due to a decreased bioavail-ability of NO3, we investigated the effects of TRAIL and nitric oxide synthase/nitric oxide (NOS/NO) related pathways on the endothelial cells function in umbilical cords derived from Gestational Diabetic women, as a model of chronic in vivo exposure to hyperglycaemia in humans. The expression of sTRAIL and TRAIL-Rs was evaluated on paraffin-embedded sections of umbilical cords obtained from 10 healthy pregnant women (controls) and 10 women affected with GD as well as on mononuclear cells puri-fied from PBMC of 6 controls and 6 GD women. The labelling for sTRAIL, TRAIL-R1 and TRAIL-R2 was found significantly higher in GD umbilical cords (venous endothe-lial layer) as compared with controls (p