Fig. 6.

Inhibition of metalloproteinases (MMPs) decreases trophoblast matrix degradation. (A) Typical degradation level observed by trophoblasts on fluorescently labelled gelatin matrix. (B) Trophoblast cells treated with the pan-MMP inhibitor, BB-94 (10 μM) shows significant reduction of degradation but nevertheless display invasive protrusions through the gelatin compared to Fig. 6A. (C) Inhibition of MMP activity significantly decreases the degrading ability of trophoblast cells to similar levels. BB-94 reduces the number of cells actively degrading to a greater extent than MMP-2 (50 nM) and MMP-9 (50 nM) inhibition. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001. Arrow heads indicate a single actin rich protrusion. All scale bars equal to 10 μm.