Abstract
The invasion of extravillous trophoblast cells into the maternal endometrium is one of the key events in human placentation. The ability of these cells to infiltrate the uterine wall and to anchor the placenta to it as well as their ability to infiltrate and adjust utero-placental vessels to pregnancy depends, among other things, on their ability to secrete enzymes that degrade the extracellular matrix.
Most of these enzymes belong to the family of matrix metal loproteinases. Matrix metal loproteinases (MMPs) belong to secreted or membrane-associated zinc endopeptidases capable of digesting extracellular matrix components.
This assay can be used in detecting MMP activity in biological samples using a EDANS/DABCYL fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) peptide.