An old friend with a new face: YB-1 and its role in healthy pregnancy and pregnancy-associated complications

Florence Fischer; Anne Schumacher; Nicole Meyer; Beate Fink; Mario Bauer; Violeta Stojanovska; Ana Claudia Zenclussen

doi:10.3389/fcell.2022.1039206

An old friend with a new face: YB-1 and its role in healthy pregnancy and pregnancy-associated complications

Front Cell Dev Biol. 2022 Oct 18:10:1039206. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2022.1039206. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Florence Fischer¹, Anne Schumacher^{1

2}, Nicole Meyer^{1

2}, Beate Fink¹, Mario Bauer¹, Violeta Stojanovska^{1

2}, Ana Claudia Zenclussen^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental Immunology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig, Germany.
² Experimental Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical Faculty, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany.

Abstract

By promoting tissue invasion, cell growth and angiogenesis, the Y-box binding protein (YB-1) became famous as multifunctional oncoprotein. However, this designation is telling only part of the story. There is one particular time in life when actual tumorigenic-like processes become undoubtedly welcome, namely pregnancy. It seems therefore reasonable that YB-1 plays also a crucial role in reproduction, and yet this biological aspect of the cold-shock protein has been overlooked for many years. To overcome this limitation, we would like to propose a new perspective on YB-1 and emphasize its pivotal functions in healthy pregnancy and pregnancy-related complications. Moreover, we will discuss findings obtained from cancer research in the light of reproductive events to elucidate the importance of YB-1 at the feto-maternal interface.

Keywords: YB-1 protein; cold shock protein; implantation; pregnancy; trophoblast.