Project description:Placental insufficiency is implicated in spontaneous preterm birth (SPTB). We performed RNA-seq study in male and female placentas from women (African American, self-identified) with SPTB (< 36 weeks gestation) compared to normal pregnancies (≥ 38 weeks gestation) to assess the alterations in gene expression profiles.
Project description:The prevalence of preterm birth along with its associated mortality and lifelong morbidity warrant a better understanding of the underlying signaling events for better diagnosis and management of the condition. Placenta is an important transient organ that acts as a conduit between the fetus and mother. Any physiological and pathological changes taking place in the feto-maternal system are directly reflected in the placenta, making it a fitting choice to study the altered signaling mechanisms that are play. We undertook independent data acquisition of clinical placenta samples (n=40), obtained from Garbh-Ini cohort, to study their comparative protein profiles in spontaneous preterm vs term birth condition. When label-free quantitation (LFQ) was carried out, it yielded 23 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in the case-control comparison.
Project description:Genome wide placental DNA methylation profiling of full term and preterm deliveries sampled from 5 full term deliveries and 4 preterm deliveries. The Illumina HumanMethylation450 Beadchip was used to obtain DNA methylation profiles across approximately 485,577 CpGs in formalin fixed samples. Samples included 4 placental tissues from 4 women with preterm delivery and 5 placental tissues from 5 women with full term delivery. 9 women's placental DNA (4 women had perterm deliveries and 5 women had full term deliveries) were hybridised to the Illumina HumanMethylation450 Beadchip
Project description:Genome wide placental DNA methylation profiling of full term and preterm deliveries sampled from 5 full term deliveries and 4 preterm deliveries. The Illumina HumanMethylation450 Beadchip was used to obtain DNA methylation profiles across approximately 485,577 CpGs in formalin fixed samples. Samples included 4 placental tissues from 4 women with preterm delivery and 5 placental tissues from 5 women with full term delivery.
Project description:Objective: Human parturition involves many events among mother, fetus, and placenta, and the initiation of these events is the consequence of activation of a series of endocrine and immune responses. Multiple underlying pathways account for the cascade of events that culminate in spontaneous preterm labor. In this study, we aimed to characterize these signaling pathways of placental origin at molecular levels. Study design: We used single-cell RNA-sequencing (sc-RNA-seq) analysis to probe transcriptional heterogeneity in human placenta delivered at preterm or term and then used RNA in situ hybridization (RNA-ISH) assay on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) placental tissues to validate these results. Results: By using sc-RNA-seq on villous cytotrophoblast (CTB) isolated from a preterm placenta, we found that signaling pathways implicated in the initiation of term or preterm labor including ferroptosis, kisspeptin (KISS1), and senescence were constitutively activated in distinct cellular clusters of these trophoblastic stem cells. RNA-ISH-based spatial gene expression profiling in FFPE tissues revealed that pregnancy-specific beta-1-glycoprotein 4 (PSG4), a potent molecular driver for cellular aging, was significantly increased in preterm placentas (N = 30) compared to their full-term counterparts (N = 9). Furthermore, PSG4 mRNA signals were predominantly detected in the villous syncytiotrophoblast and the discontinuous monolayer of CTB as well as the intervillous space where maternal blood circulates. Conclusion: Our study provides strong support for PSG4 overexpression serving as a biomarker for pregnant women at risk for preterm delivery, which can allow for the development of timely and clinical preventive strategies.
Project description:Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have a much higher cell- and/or tissue-specificity compared to mRNAs in most cases, making them excellent candidates for therapeutic applications to reduce off-target effects. Placental long non-coding RNAs have been investigated in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia (often causing preterm birth (PTB)), but less is known about their role in preterm birth. Preterm birth occurs in 11% of pregnancies and is the most common cause of death among infants in the world. We recently identified that genes that drive circadian rhythms in cells, termed molecular clock genes, are deregulated in maternal blood of women with spontaneous PTB (sPTB) and in the placenta of women with preeclampsia. Next, we focused on circadian genes-correlated long intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs, making up most of the long non-coding RNAs), designated as circadian lincRNAs, associated with sPTB. We compared the co-altered circadian transcripts-correlated lincRNAs expressed in placentas of sPTB and term births using two published independent RNAseq datasets (GSE73712 and GSE174415). Nine core clock genes were up- or downregulated in sPTB versus term birth, where the RORA transcript was the only gene downregulated in sPTB across both independent datasets. We found that five circadian lincRNAs (LINC00893, LINC00265, LINC01089, LINC00482, and LINC00649) were decreased in sPTB vs term births across both datasets (p ≤ .0222, FDR≤.1973) and were negatively correlated with the dataset-specific clock genes-based risk scores (correlation coefficient r = -.65 ∼ -.43, p ≤ .0365, FDR≤.0601). Gene set variation analysis revealed that 65 pathways were significantly enriched by these same five differentially expressed lincRNAs, of which over 85% of the pathways could be linked to immune/inflammation/oxidative stress and cell cycle/apoptosis/autophagy/cellular senescence. These findings may improve our understanding of the pathogenesis of spontaneous preterm birth and provide novel insights into the development of potentially more effective and specific therapeutic targets against sPTB.