| Summary: | Embryonic development up to the blastocyst stage, implantation into the uterine wall and the development of the functional placenta are steps crucial for the establishment of normal pregnancy. Specific cells of the placenta, the trophoblast cells, invade the uterine stroma and spiral arteries, adapting them to pregnancy. Interleukin-6 is present in the human endometrium during the receptive phase and early pregnancy. Trophoblasts also produce IL-6, which was found to stimulate trophoblast invasion and migration in vitro. Here we show that the activity of MMP-9 may contribute to the observed increased invasion. In addition, in the HTR-8/SVneo trophoblast cell line IL-6 increases cell proliferation. .
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