They are named after J. Isfred Isidore Hofbauer (1871[2]-1961),[1] a German-American gynecologist who described the cell type in his book Grundzüge einer Biologie der menschlichen Plazenta,
mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Fragen der fötalen Ernährung (Biology of the Human Placenta with a special emphasis on the question of fetal nourishment).
Function
They are believed to be a type of
macrophage[3][4] and are most likely involved in preventing the transmission of
pathogens from the mother to the
fetus (
vertical transmission). Although there are many studies concerning placental vasculogenesis and angiogenesis, there has been a lack of evidence on the possible roles of Hofbauer cells in these processes.[5] According to a systems level single-cell transcriptomics based study of human placental cell-cell communication, Hofbauer cells produce HBEGF, an EGFR ligand, which drives differentiation of villous cytotrophoblasts (VCT) towards syncytiotrophoblasts (SCT).[6]
Histology
Under histology sections, Hofbauer cells have appeared with discernible amount of cytoplasm.
^Zaccheo, D.; Pistoia, V.; Castellucci, M.; Martinoli, C. (1989). "Isolation and characterization of Hofbauer cells from human placental villi". Arch Gynecol Obstet. 246 (4): 189–200.
doi:
10.1007/bf00934518.
PMID2482706.
S2CID30920736.
^Seval, Y.; Korgun, ET.; Demir, R. (2007). "Hofbauer cells in early human placenta: possible implications in vasculogenesis and angiogenesis". Placenta. 28 (8–9): 841–5.
doi:
10.1016/j.placenta.2007.01.010.
PMID17350092.
^Vento-Tormo, Roser; Efremova, Mirjana; Botting, Rachel A.; Turco, Margherita Y.; Vento-Tormo, Miquel; Meyer, Kerstin B.; Park, Jong-Eun; Stephenson, Emily; Polański, Krzysztof; Goncalves, Angela; Gardner, Lucy; Holmqvist, Staffan; Henriksson, Johan; Zou, Angela; Sharkey, Andrew M.; Millar, Ben; Innes, Barbara; Wood, Laura; Wilbrey-Clark, Anna; Payne, Rebecca P.; Ivarsson, Martin A.; Lisgo, Steve; Filby, Andrew; Rowitch, David H.; Bulmer, Judith N.; Wright, Gavin J.; Stubbington, Michael J. T.; Haniffa, Muzlifah; Moffett, Ashley; Teichmann, Sarah A. (2018).
"Single-cell reconstruction of the early maternal–fetal interface in humans". Nature. 563 (7731): 347–353.
Bibcode:
2018Natur.563..347V.
doi:
10.1038/s41586-018-0698-6.
ISSN0028-0836.
PMC7612850.
PMID30429548.