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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 277, Issue 15, 12901-12905, April 12, 2002

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PLIF, a Novel Human Ferritin Subunit from Placenta with Immunosuppressive Activity^*

Chaya Moroz, Leonid Traub, Ron Maymon, and Muayad A. Zahalka

From the Laboratory of Molecular Immunology, Felsenstein Medical Research Center, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Rabin Medical Center, Petah Tikva 49100, Israel

Ferritin is a ubiquitous iron storage protein existing in multiple isoforms composed of 24 heavy and light chain subunits. We describe here a third ferritin-related subunit cloned from human placenta cDNA library and named PLIF (placental immunomodulatory ferritin). The PLIF coding region is composed of ferritin heavy chain (FTH) sequence lacking the 65 C-terminal amino acids, which are substituted with a novel 48 amino acid domain (C48). In contrast to FTH, PLIF mRNA does not include the iron response element in the 5'-untranslated region, suggesting that PLIF synthesis is not regulated by iron. The linkage between the FTH and C48 domains created a restriction site for EcoRI. PLIF protein was found to localize in syncytiotrophoblasts of placentas (8 weeks of gestation) at the fetal-maternal interface. Increased levels of PLIF transcript and protein were also detected in the breast carcinoma cell lines T47D and MCF-7 but not in the benign corresponding cell line HBL-100. In vitro, PLIF was shown to down-modulate mixed lymphocyte reactions and to inhibit the proliferation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells stimulated with OKT3. The accumulated data indicate that PLIF is an embryonic immune factor involved in down-modulating the maternal immune recognition of the embryo toward anergy. This mechanism may have been adapted by breast cancer cells over expressing PLIF.

The nucleotide sequence(s) reported in this paper has been submitted to the GenBank^TM/EBI Data Bank with accession number(s) AY033611.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. Nahum, O. Brenner, M.A. Zahalka, L. Traub, F. Quintana, and C. Moroz Blocking of the placental immune-modulatory ferritin activates Th1 type cytokines and affects placenta development, fetal growth and the pregnancy outcome Hum. Reprod., March 1, 2004; 19(3): 715 - 722. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. Maymon, E. Jauniaux, and C. Moroz Enhanced expression of the immunoregulator, p43-placental isoferritin, in Down's syndrome placentae and fetal kidneys Mol. Hum. Reprod., December 1, 2002; 8(12): 1125 - 1128. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]