physiological significance of placental aminopeptidases

本研究的目的是纯化胎盘氨肽酶，研究其参与可能来自胎儿的生物活性肽的代谢和降解，并研究其在胎盘功能检测中的临床应用。P-LAP（催产素酶）、氨肽酶M、血管紧张素转换酶（kininase II）、氨肽酶A、Kininase I（carborypeptidase N）、二肽基肽酶IV、后脯氨酸内肽酶、氨肽酶B。我们的研究表明，妊娠血清和胎盘中的氨肽酶，降解催产素，血管加压素，血管紧张素II和III，缓激肽，内源性阿片类药物，tuftsin，胸腺五肽和脾五肽。已知妊娠血清氨肽酶活性在妊娠期间增加。然而，其生理意义尚不完全清楚。我们的研究表明，妊娠血清中的氨肽酶负责降解催产素、血管紧张素和布拉地激肽等，我们显示这些氨肽酶作为胎盘功能试验的可能临床应用。

Our research aimed to purify placental aminopeptidase, to show their involvement in the metabolization and degradation of bioactive peptides possibly devited from the fetus, and to show their clinical application for placental function test.The following are the 7 aminopeptidases that we purified: P-LAP(oxytocinase),aminopeptidase M,Angiotensin-converting enzyme(kininase II),Aminopeptidase A,Kininase I (carborypeptidase N),Dipeptidyl peptidase IV,Post-proline endopeptidase, aminopeptidase B.Degradation of bioactive peptides by high purified placental aminopeptidases was studied using HPLC. Our study showed the aminopeptidases in pregnancy serum and placenta, which degrade oxytocin,vasopressin,angiotensin II and III,bradykinin,endogenous opioids,tuftsin,thymopentin and splenopentin. Pregnancy serum aminopeptidase activities are known to increase during pregnancy. However, their physiological significance is not completely known. Our study showed the aminopeptidases in pregrancy serum responsible for degradation of oxytocin,angiotensin and buradykinin etc.We showed possible clinical use of these aminopeptidases as a placental function test.