Project description:Maternal whole blood colected longitudinally were profiled using Affymetrix Human Transcriptome Arrays to evaluate prediction of gestational age in normal and complicated pregnancies and predict preterm birth. LMP is the date at the last menstrual period. Oper_LMP is the date at the last menstrual period with eventual adjustment based on ultrasound determination. Gestational age (GA) (weeks) is defined as (Date at sample - Oper_LMP)/7. For control pregnancies, SubGroup defines those with spontaneous labor at term (TL) as opposed with those delivered by cesarean section (TNL). Train is 1 if the sample was used in sub-challenge 1 in the training set as opposed to test set (0). D2 is 1 if the sample was used in the 2 interval prediction scenario, and if yes, it was assigned to the interval given by column D2Interval. D3 is 1 if the sample was used in the 3 interval prediction scenario, and if yes, it was assigned to the interval given by column D3Interval. DiagnosisGA is the gestational age at diagnosis with any disease indicated by the Group variable, and it is set to NA for normal pregnancies.
Project description:Preterm birth, defined as birth <37 weeks of gestation, is a leading cause of infant morbidity and mortality. In the United States, approximately 12% of all births are preterm.1 Despite decades of research, there has been little progress in developing effective interventions to prevent preterm birth. In fact, the rate of preterm birth has increased slightly over the last several decades.2 The ultimate goal of the Genomic and Proteomic Network for Preterm Birth Research (GPN-PBR) is to identify possible biomarkers that could predict the susceptibility to spontaneous preterm birth (SPTB) as well as to shed light on the molecular mechanisms involved in its etiologies. Understanding those mechanisms will help us predict SPTB and may facilitate the introduction of more effective prevention and treatment strategies.
Project description:Threatened preterm labour (TPTL) is the most common condition that requires hospitalisation during pregnancy. Most of these symptomatic women continue their pregnancies to term while only an estimated 5% will deliver a premature baby within ten days. Peripheral blood leukocytes are exposed to “activating signals” from reproductive tissues and may indicate the impending onset of labour. Objectives: 1) To investigate differential leukocyte gene expression in women with TPTL; and 2) to develop a gene signature to predict preterm birth (PTB) within 48 hours in symptomatic women. Design, Setting and Participants: Women clinically diagnosed with TPTL were recruited. Peripheral blood was obtained at point of admission prior to medical treatments. mRNA was extracted and microarrays (Affymetrix U133 Plus 2.0) were utilised to determine differential gene expressions between women who did (n=48) and did not (n=106) have a preterm delivery within 48 hours of hospital admission. Results: There were 394 significantly differentially expressed genes (FDR<0.05, Limma); 22 out of 30 genes chosen for qRT-PCR validation were differentially expressed (p<0.05). Total 154; 48 delivered within 48 hours of hospital admission; 106 did not deliver within 48 hours
Project description:To investigate the differentially expressed mRNAs and microRNAs in human placenta between early-onset preeclampsia (EO-PE) and preterm birth controls (PTB), next generation sequencing was performed in 5 paired EO-PE and PTB placentas.
Project description:Preterm birth is the major cause of newborn and infant mortality affecting nearly one in every ten live births. This study was designed to develop an epigenetic biomarker for susceptibility of preterm birth using buccal cells from the mother, father, and child (triads). MeDIP-seq was used to identify differential DNA methylation regions (DMRs) using a comparison of control term birth versus preterm birth triads. Epigenetic DMR associations with preterm birth were identified for both the mother and father that were distinct and suggest potential epigenetic contributions from both parents. The mother (165 DMRs) and female child (136 DMRs) at p<1e-04 had the highest number of DMRs and were highly similar suggesting potential epigenetic inheritance of the epimutations. The male child had negligible DMR associations. The DMR associated genes for each group involve previously identified preterm birth associated genes.
Project description:Analysis of genome-wide gene expression in placentas from women with preterm severe preeclampsia, with or without HELLP syndrome, compared to gestational age-matched controls. The hypothesis tested in the present study was that placental transcriptomic changes in preeclampsia are considerably different from controls. The results provide important information on placental transcriptomic changes in preeclampsia.