Fig. 3

Constitutive mTOR activation by DEPTOR silencing partially restores System A activity. a Protein expression of DEPTOR (an endogenous mTOR inhibitor) was decreased following DEPTOR silencing in primary human trophoblast cells. mTOR activity was measured as the phosphorylated-to-total protein expression levels of rps6, 4EBP-1, and Akt in primary human trophoblast cells transfected either with DEPTOR siRNA or with a Scramble siRNA control (SCR). b Representative Western blot. DEPTOR silencing resulted in (c) constitutively higher mTORC1 signaling activity only and (d) higher System A activity. e DEPTOR silencing partially restored System A activity in response to infected conditioned medium. n = 5 placentas. CM conditioned medium, SCR scrambled