O-Glcnac Modification During Pregnancy: Focus On Placental Environment

Successful placentation is a key event for fetal development, which commences following embryo implantation into the uterine wall, eliciting decidualization, placentation, and remodeling of blood vessels to provide physiological exchange between embryo-fetus and mother. Several signaling pathways are recruited to modulate such important processes and specific proteins that regulate placental function are a target for the glycosylation with <i>O-</i>linked β-N-acetylglucosamine (<i>O-</i>GlcNAc), or <i>O-</i>GlcNAcylation. This is a reversible post-translational modification on nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins, mainly controlled by <i>O-</i>GlcNAc transferase (OGT) and <i>O-</i>GlcNAcase (OGA). <i>O-</i>GlcNAcylation has been implicated as a modulator of proteins, both in physiological and pathological conditions and, more recently, <i>O</i>-GlcNAc has also been shown to be an important modulator in placental tissue. In this mini-review, the interplay between <i>O-</i>GlcNAcylation of proteins and placental function will be addressed, discussing the possible implications of this post-translational modification through placental development and pregnancy.