Drug transporters in the human blood-placental barrier

4 important questions on Drug transporters in the human blood-placental barrier

How does the human placenta look like?

In the maternal side, there are spiral arteries that bring blood from uterine wall to the blood space around placenta villi. A villus is formed by fetal vessels that branch from cord vessels.

during pregnancy the syncytiotrophoblast contains still a few cytotrophoblasts and beyond this there is a cappilary endothelium, before fetal blood starts. Both syncytiotrophoblast and fetal cappilary endothelium express transporters. Also the basal and apical membranes express different transporters.

What kind of transporters are expressed in the human placenta?

- BCRP
- Pgp
- MRP1-3
-  OATP8
- OATPA-E
- OAT4
- OCT3
- OCTN1
- OCTN2
- SERT (5-HT transporter) 
- NET (noradrenaline transporter)

What are the organic cation transporters?

e.g. OCT3 and OCTN2 are known to be very much expressive in the human placenta. OCTN2 is most probably localized at the apical surface of the syncytiotrophoblast. It can transport L-carnitine to the fetus.
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What are the SERT and NET transporters?

serotonine and noradrenaline transporters. NET mRNA was found in anchoring villi while SERT mRNA was found in chorionic villi.

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