Kinin receptors in stimulated and characterized decidua tissue-derived cells

Bradykinin and its kinin B2 receptor are autocrine and paracrine mediators in foetal membranes and decidua. As a first step we characterized the intracellular morphology of decidual cells. Cultured decidua tissue-derived cells immunolabel for vimentin fibrils, and are considered to be of mesenchymal origin. They show characteristics of macrophages and can be distinguished from endothelial cells and cells of the trophoblast lineage. These cellular features were determined by means of immunocytochemistry. Furthermore cultured decidua tissue-derived cells express kinin B2 receptors and in this context we demonstrated its expression at mRNA level by in situ reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. Following stimulation with bacterial lipopolysaccharide, we have observed a marginal upregulation of the expression of kinin B1 receptors and carboxypeptidase M by quantitative RT-PCR. Equilibrium binding experiments with [3H]des-Arg10-kallidin, the kinin B1 receptor agonist, did not result in detectable binding sites.