Establishment of feeder-independent cloned caprine trophoblast cell line which expresses placental lactogen and interferon tau

A feeder-independent cloned trophoblast cell line, HTS-1, was established from a mature placenta of Shiba goat (Capra hircus). During the growth phase, single HTS-1 cells exhibited ruffled membranes or lamellipodia often accompanied by elongated cell shape, indicating highly motile nature of the cells. At or near confluence, HTS-1 cells formed monolayers with few sign of cellular overlapping. Binucleate cells were found at a high frequency especially in the peripheral regions of monolayers. In small colonies and the monolayers, majority of HTS-1 cells assumed polygonally shaped cobble-stone like morphology characteristic to epithelial cells, although considerable variations in cellular morphology were observed despite of repeated cloning. Time-lapse video recordings of HTS-1 cells during culture revealed that not only the small colonies but also the monolayers near or at confluence were remarkably motile, often causing extreme elongation of the cells within them. The extremely plastic nature of HTS-1 cells in vitro is likely to be the reflection of the extraordinary capacity of caprine trophoblast cells to be stretched to extreme thiness in vivo as shown by electron microscopy. HTS-1 cells cultured on matrigel are highly invasive, and express MT1-MMP which, in the mouse, has been known to be expressed at the invasive edge of trophoblast both in vitro and in vivo. HTS-1 cells express placental lactogen (PL) and interferon-τ (IFN-τ), as confirmed by immunocytochemistry, Western blotting and RT-PCR analysis. Both PL and IFNτ expression in the cells appeared to be down-regulated by cell-cell contact. In the medium conditioned by HTS-1 cells, the presence of secretory form of PL and IFNτ was confirmed by Western blotting. The HTS-1 cell line will serve as a useful in vitro model for the analysis of the molecular and/or cellular mechanisms underlying synepitheliochorial placentation in bovidae animals.