Project description:Genome wide DNA methylation profiling of placenta/cord blood/saliva samples obtained from babies born by oocyte in vitro maturation (IVM) or in vitro fertilization (IVF). The Illumina Infinium EPIC Human DNA methylation Beadchip v1.2 was used to obtain DNA methylation profiles across approximately 850,000 CpGs. The main goal of this project was to find specific methylation profiles associated to use of IVM.
Project description:Genome-wide DNA methylation profiling was performed to identify novel markers for DNA methylation-based identification of forensically forensically relevant body flulids. CpGs specifically methylated or unmethylated in saliva, vaginal swabs, blood and semen were searched by comparing beta values of about 850000 CpGs of pooled samples of each body fluid.
Project description:<p>The focus of this study was to better understand the effects of cigarette smoking on the vaginal microbiome. There were two phases of the study, cross-sectional and longitudinal, conducted at the Center for Health Behavior Research at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. In the cross-sectional phase, 20 smokers and 20 non-smokers collected mid-vaginal swabs, measured their vaginal pH, prepared a vaginal smear on a slide for Nugent Gram stain analysis, and completed questionnaires about demographics, tobacco use, and reproductive and sexual health history. Smoking status was confirmed through self-report, carbon monoxide exhalation and saliva cotinine measures. Secretions from the mid-vaginal swabs were tested for presence/absence of HPV strains and GC-MS was used to quantify the levels of over 600 metabolites.</p> <p>In the longitudinal phase, 7 participants who were current smokers and motivated to quit smoking were recruited and followed for up to 12 weeks. On a daily basis, participants collected mid-vaginal swabs, measured their vaginal pH, and prepared a mid-vaginal smear on a slide for Nugent Gram stain analysis, and completed daily diaries on tobacco use and reproductive health. Carbon monoxide exhalation and saliva cotinine measures were collected at weekly clinical visits. In addition, participants had weekly behavioral counseling sessions about smoking cessation and used Nicoderm CQ patches to aid in quitting smoking. The self-collected vaginal swabs were used for DNA extractions,16s rRNA sequencing and measurement of metabolites in vaginal fluid.</p>
Project description:In MTN-007, a phase 1, randomized, double-blinded rectal microbicide trial, we used systems genomics/proteomics to determine the effect of tenofovir 1% gel, nonoxynol-9 2% gel, placebo gel or no treatment on rectal biopsies taken at baseline, after one application or after seven daily applications (15 subjects/arm). Experiments were repeated using primary vaginal epithelial cells from four healthy women.
Project description:In MTN-007, a phase 1, randomized, double-blinded rectal microbicide trial, we used systems genomics/proteomics to determine the effect of tenofovir 1% gel, nonoxynol-9 2% gel, placebo gel or no treatment on rectal biopsies taken at baseline, after one application or after seven daily applications (15 subjects/arm). Experiments were repeated using primary vaginal epithelial cells from four healthy women.
Project description:One possible mechanism leading to the apparent polymorphic placenta-specific DMRs would be the failure to maintain allelic methylation during gestation. For a temporal comparison, we performed methylation profiling on first trimester chorionic villus sampling (CVS) and compared it with corresponding samples at term. This revealed that DNA methylation level at placenta-specific DMRs is highly stable between the two points. In addition, to ensure that the methylation profiles were uniform across the placental plate, we determined the placenta-specific DMR profiles from multiple biopsies from the same term placentas. Biopsies collected from the opposite sides of the cord insertion site also showed high correlations, suggesting that methylation does not vary greatly between sampling sites. Finally, we compared placenta samples from dizygotic twins and triplets. As in the other cases, this revealed that the correlations between samples of the same gestations (sharing the same in utero environment and maternal exposures) were also higher than between unrelated samples.
Project description:In MTN-007, a phase 1, randomized, double-blinded rectal microbicide trial, we used systems genomics/proteomics to determine the effect of tenofovir 1% gel, nonoxynol-9 2% gel, placebo gel or no treatment on rectal biopsies taken at baseline, after one application or after seven daily applications (15 subjects/arm). Experiments were repeated using primary vaginal epithelial cells from four healthy women. 192 Arrays (8 donors per treatment group, 2 biopsy sites per donor (9cm and 15 cm), biopsies taken at baseline, after a single application, and after 7 daily applications)
Project description:In MTN-007, a phase 1, randomized, double-blinded rectal microbicide trial, we used systems genomics/proteomics to determine the effect of tenofovir 1% gel, nonoxynol-9 2% gel, placebo gel or no treatment on rectal biopsies taken at baseline, after one application or after seven daily applications (15 subjects/arm). Experiments were repeated using primary vaginal epithelial cells from four healthy women. 36 Arrays (3 primary vaginal epithelial cell lines from healthy women donors, cultured with or without 50uM or 500 uM Tenofovir for 1,4,7, or 14 days per donor cell line. A no treatment, culture media only control was included for each donor cell line and for each time point.
Project description:We hypothesized that preterm spontaneous labor involves aberrant changes in mRNA expression in the placenta. To test this hypothesis, we interrogated the mRNA levels of >50,000 genes and transcript variants using gene expression microarray (Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array, Affymetrix) on 5 placentas collected from preterm spontaneous delivery (<34 weeks of gestation) and another 5 placentas collected from term spontaneous delivery (38-39 weeks). We have identified 229 and 162 genes that were up- or down-regulated, respectively, for more than 3-fold in the preterm placentas compared to the term placentas (Mann-Whitney Rank Sum Test, with multiple testing correction by the Benjamini-Hochberg method, adjusted p-value <= 0.05). Placentas collected from (i) preterm spontaneous delivery (<34 weeks of gestation) and (ii) term spontaneous delivery (38-39 weeks of gestation) were subjected to RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. To identify gene expression patterns that are commonly involved in preterm spontaneous labour, we analyzed 5 placentas from each of these 2 groups and tested for any differentially expressed genes by Mann-Whitney Rank Sum Test.
Project description:We hypothesized that preterm spontaneous labor involves aberrant changes in mRNA expression in the placenta. To test this hypothesis, we interrogated the mRNA levels of >50,000 genes and transcript variants using gene expression microarray (Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array, Affymetrix) on 5 placentas collected from preterm spontaneous delivery (<34 weeks of gestation) and another 5 placentas collected from term spontaneous delivery (38-39 weeks). We have identified 229 and 162 genes that were up- or down-regulated, respectively, for more than 3-fold in the preterm placentas compared to the term placentas (Mann-Whitney Rank Sum Test, with multiple testing correction by the Benjamini-Hochberg method, adjusted p-value <= 0.05).