REVIEW article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Reproduction
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1584303
This article is part of the Research TopicPhysiology and Pathophysiology of PlacentaView all 4 articles
Secretion of Placental Peptide Hormones: Functions and Trafficking
Provisionally accepted
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIH), Durham, United States
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The placenta is a dynamic endocrine organ that plays a crucial role in fetal development by secreting a diverse array of peptide hormones that regulate maternal and fetal physiology. These hormones, including human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), human placental lactogen (hPL), and placental growth hormone (hPGH), among others, are essential for pregnancy maintenance, fetal growth, and metabolic adaptation.Dysregulation of the secretory machinery and the levels of these hormones in circulation is associated with a myriad of pregnancy-related disorders. Despite their significance, the mechanisms governing their intracellular trafficking and secretion remain incompletely understood. This review synthesizes current knowledge on the secretion pathways of placental hormones, highlighting the interplay between constitutive and regulated secretion, and the challenges in defining these mechanisms due to the unique structure of the syncytiotrophoblast. We also discuss how emerging technologies, such as 2D and 3D placental models and advanced protein trafficking assays, can provide deeper insights into the regulation of placental hormone secretion.Understanding these processes will not only enhance our knowledge of placental biology but also provide new avenues for diagnosing and treating pregnancy-related disorders.
Keywords: human placenta, Peptide Hormones, secretion, Pregnancy, Cell Biology
Received: 27 Feb 2025; Accepted: 12 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ahmadi, Perez and Guardia. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Carlos M Guardia, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIH), Durham, United States
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