Project description:Intra-amniotic infection, the invasion of microbes into the amniotic cavity resulting in an inflammatory process, is a clinical condition that can lead to adverse pregnancy outcomes for the mother and fetus as well as severe long-term neonatal morbidities. Despite much research focused on the consequences of intra-amniotic infection, there is still little knowledge about the functional roles of innate immune cells that respond to invading microbes. In the current study, we performed RNA sequencing of sorted neutrophils and monocytes/macrophages from amniotic fluid from women with intra-amniotic infection to determine the transcriptomic differences between these innate immune cells. Further, we sought to identify specific transcriptomic pathways that were significantly altered by the maternal or fetal origin of amniotic fluid neutrophils and monocytes, the presence of a severe fetal inflammatory response, and pregnancy outcome (i.e. preterm or term delivery). We showed that significant transcriptomic differences exist between amniotic fluid neutrophils and monocytes/macrophages from women with intra-amniotic infection that are indicative of the distinct roles these cells play. We also found that amniotic fluid monocytes/macrophages of fetal origin display impaired ability to clear out microbes invading the amniotic cavity compared to those of maternal origin. Notably, we demonstrate that the transcriptomic changes in amniotic fluid monocytes/macrophages are heavily associated with the severity of the fetal inflammatory response, suggesting that the trafficking of fetal neutrophils throughout the umbilical cord is partially modulated by monocytes/macrophages in the amniotic cavity. Finally, we show that amniotic fluid neutrophils and monocytes/macrophages from preterm deliveries display enhanced transcriptomic activity compared to those from term deliveries, highlighting the protective role of these innate immune cells in this vulnerable period. Collectively, these findings demonstrate the underlying complexity of local innate immune responses in women with intra-amniotic infection, and provide new insights into the functions of amniotic fluid neutrophils and monocytes in the amniotic cavity.
Project description:Monocytes and neutrophils are both myeloid cells that have the same progenitor, the granulocyte macrophage precursor (GMP). Neutrophils are mature innate cells that are phagocytes and can degranulate to mount an immune response, whereas monocytes are immature pluripotent cells that can differentiate into macrophages and dendritic cells that can phagocytose and present antigen. To compare the expression pattern and validate samples purity by comparing expression data with previously generated data for monocytes and neutrophils, we isolated monocytes (CD45+ CD64+ CD14+ CD16-) and neutrophils (CD66b+ CD16+) from eight healthy volunteers.
Project description:Fetal wounds repair by regeneration rather than wound healing and the environment is dominated by amniotic fluid. We are looking at early transcriptional regulation of keratinocytes cultured in amniotic fluid in vitro. Keratinocytes were isolated and expanded to passage three after which they were starved in DMEM for 12h then cultured for 24h in human amniotic fluid (50%), fcs (50%) or DMEM alone for another 24h. N=2, pooled replicates per CEL-file.
Project description:This SuperSeries is composed of the following subset Series: GSE30064: Cultured human amniotic fluid-derived mesenchymal stromal cells [PIQOR data] GSE30065: Cultured human amniotic fluid-derived mesenchymal stromal cells [miRXplore data] Refer to individual Series
Project description:The objective of this study was to identify the tissue expression patterns and biological pathways enriched in term amniotic fluid cell-free fetal RNA by comparing functional genomic analyses of term and second-trimester amniotic fluid supernatants. There were 2,871 significantly differentially regulated genes. In term amniotic fluid, tissue expression analysis showed enrichment of salivary gland, tracheal, and renal transcripts as compared with brain and embryonic neural cells in the second trimester. Functional analysis of genes upregulated at term revealed pathways that were highly specific for postnatal adaptation such as immune function, digestion, respiration, carbohydrate metabolism, and adipogenesis. Inflammation and prostaglandin synthesis, two key processes involved in normal labor, were also activated in term amniotic fluid. This was a prospective whole genome microarray study comparing eight amniotic fluid samples collected from eight women at term who underwent prelabor cesarean delivery and eight second-trimester amniotic fluid samples from routine amniocenteses. A functional annotation tool was used to compare tissue expression patterns in term and second-trimester samples. Pathways analysis software identified physiologic systems, molecular and cellular functions, and upstream regulators that were significantly overrepresented in term amniotic fluid.
Project description:The objective of this study was to identify the tissue expression patterns and biological pathways enriched in term amniotic fluid cell-free fetal RNA by comparing functional genomic analyses of term and second-trimester amniotic fluid supernatants. There were 2,871 significantly differentially regulated genes. In term amniotic fluid, tissue expression analysis showed enrichment of salivary gland, tracheal, and renal transcripts as compared with brain and embryonic neural cells in the second trimester. Functional analysis of genes upregulated at term revealed pathways that were highly specific for postnatal adaptation such as immune function, digestion, respiration, carbohydrate metabolism, and adipogenesis. Inflammation and prostaglandin synthesis, two key processes involved in normal labor, were also activated in term amniotic fluid.
Project description:Amniotic fluid stem cells (AFSCs) are of interest in regenerative medicine as a non-controversial and potentially 'abundant' source of stem cells. Progress has been made in understanding amniotic fluid stem cell biology, and amniotic fluid-derived cells have been induced to form neurons, osteoblasts, muscle cells, and others. Our study evaluates change in the genome-wide expression profile of amniotic fluid stem cells during in-vitro culture, using Affymetrix U133 Plus 2.0 microarray chips. We found that only 3.08% of gene probes were differentially expressed from early to late passage of AFSC culture. The differentially expressed genes were related to biological processes or cellular function - including transcription factors, protein kinases, and cytokines/growth factors. Other gene-sets of interest were oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, which were a very small number of genes. We further analyzed the gene sets of interest using NIH DAVID and GSEA bioinformatics databases for gene annotations analysis. Applying false discovery rate correction, there was no significant difference in the genome-wide expression profiling between early and late passage. AFSCs maintain their genome-wide expression profile during in-vitro culture. Amniotic fluid-derived c-kit-positive cells were maintained in stem cell culture and genome-wide expression changes were studied and compared between early passage and late passage in culture.
Project description:Amniotic fluid has been proposed as an easily available source of cells for numerous applications in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. The use of amniotic fluid cells in biomedical applications necessitates their unequivocal characterization; however, the exact cellular composition of amniotic fluid and the precise tissue origins of these cells remain largely unclear. Using cells cultured from human amniotic fluid of the second trimester from a healthy fetus and fetuses with spina bifida aperta, we have performed single-cell RNA sequencing to characterize the tissue origin and marker expression of cultured amniotic fluid cells at the single-cell level. Our analysis identified nine different cell types of stromal, epithelial and immune cell phenotype, and from various fetal tissue origins, demonstrating the heterogeneity of the cultured amniotic fluid cell population at single-cell resolution. Further, our data question the presence of pluripotent stem cell populations in cultured AF, and provide a comprehensive list of markers for the characterization of its various progenitor and terminally differentiated cell types. Our study highlights the relevance of single-cell analysis approaches for the characterization of amniotic fluid cells in order to harness their full potential in biomedical research and clinical applications.