Apparent role of the macrophage growth factor, CSF-1, in placental development

Jeffery W. Pollard, Anna Bartocci, Robert Arceci, Amos Orlofsky, M. B. Ladner, E. Richard Stanley

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

421 Scopus citations

Abstract

Colony stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1) is a glycoprotein growth factor required for the proliferation and differentiation of mononuclear phagocytic cells (reviewed in ref. 1). A 10,000-fold elevation of mouse uterine CSF-1 during pregnancy, suggested by studies of the bone marrow colony stimulating activity of uterine extracts2,3, was recently demonstrated by radioimmunoassay (RIA)4. This increase and the observations that placenta and choriocarcinoma cell lines express c-fms messenger RNA and the c-fms proto oncogene product (CSF-1 receptor5) respectively 6,7, suggest an additional role for CSF-1 in pregnancy. We now show that uterine CSF-1 concentration is regulated by the synergistic action of female sex steroids, oestradiol-17β(E2) and progesterone (P) and that the elevation in CSF-1 concentration can be attributed to the preferential expression of an alternatively spliced CSF-1 mRNA by uterine glandular epithelial cells. These findings indicate that CSF-1, under hormonal influence, plays a role in placental development and function and that steroid hormones may regulate developmental processes via their effects on the expression of tissue-specific growth factors.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)484-486
Number of pages3
JournalNature
Volume330
Issue number6147
DOIs
StatePublished - 1987

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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