Faculty

Daudi K. Langat, PhD
Research Assistant Professor Anatomy & Cell Biology

Research Description

My research is focused on analyzing expression and regulation of major histocompatibility complex antigens in the placenta, using the baboon as a model. Previous work in our laboratory (and others) showed that the human placenta tightly regulates expression of transplantation antigens by down-regulating the expression of polymorphic class Ia and class II HLA genes while up-regulating expression of the relatively monomorphic class Ib genes, HLA-E and HLA-G. It has been proposed that HLA-G may play an important role in human pregnancy, and failure of expression may be involved in pathological conditions in pregnancy such as pre-eclampsia. My research focus is to identify an animal model that maybe used for in vivo functional studies of HLA-G. So far, we have identified a potential functional homologue of HLA-G (termed Paan-AG) in the olive baboon. These molecules have properties similar to those of HLA-G, and the messages and protein are expressed in the placenta and decidua but not in other tissues. We are currently analyzing this gene further to confirm whether it has any functional role at the maternal-fetal interface in the baboon. This will enable us determine whether the olive baboon can serve as a model for in vivo HLA-G functional studies.

Representative Publications

Book Chapter
Langat DK, Fazleabas AT, Hunt JS. Methods for evaluating histocompatability antigen gene expression in the baboon. In: Soares M, Hunt, JS (Eds). Placental and Trophoblast Methods and Protocols: Methods in Molecular Medicine 2006; 122:165-180.

Review Papers
Hunt JS, Langat DK, McIntire R, Morales PJ. The immunology of human pregnancy: an overview. Reproductive Biology Online 2006; In Press.

Langat, DK, Hunt JS. Do non-human primates provide appropriate animal models for studies on the function of HLA-G? Biology of Reproduction 2002; 67(5):1367-1374.

Research Papers

Langat DK, Platt SJ, Tawfik O, Fazleabas AT, Hunt JS. Differential expression of human leukocyte antigen-G (HLA-G) messenger RNAs and proteins in normal human prostate and prostatic adenocarcinoma. Journal of Reproductive Immunology 2006; 71(1):75-86.

Mwenda JM, Owuor RA, Kyama CM, Wango EO, M'arimi M, Langat DK. Khat (Catha edulis) up-regulates testosterone and decreases prolactin and cortisol levels in the baboon. J Ethnopharmacol 2006; 103:379-384.

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