Altered expression of angiogenesis-related placental genes in pre-eclampsia associated with intrauterine growth restriction.
OBJECTIVE
The normal endovascular invasion of trophoblast cells and spiral artery remodeling are impaired in pre-eclampsia. Neither the circulating factor secreted by the placenta nor the cause of the widespread endothelial dysfunction in pre-eclampsia has yet been identified. In an attempt to identify novel factors, we performed a gene expression profiling study of placental tissue from women with and without pre-eclampsia.


METHODS
The study group comprised two pre-eclamptic patients with intrauterine growth restriction while the control group comprised three healthy women with uncomplicated pregnancies. Gene expression was studied using Affymetrix Human Genome U133 Plus 2 micro arrays. We focused on genes associated with angiogenesis. Some of the micro array analysis results were verified using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).


RESULTS
Gene expression profiling revealed that the expression level of nine genes--ECGF1, JAG1, Palladin, COL18A1, TNFSF12, VEGF, ANPEP, PDGFRA and SERPIN12 - was downregulated whereas the level of four genes--EPAS1, FLT1, SIGLE10 and ANG4--was upregulated in the study group compared with the control group. The real-time RT-PCR results from JAG1, COL18A1 and FLT1 genes were in accordance with the gene expression results.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results show new targets for research to understand the mechanisms leading to pre-eclampsia.
Jarvenpaa
Jouko
J
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland. jarvenpaa@ppshp.fi
Vuoristo
Jussi T
JT
Savolainen
Eeva-Riitta
ER
Ukkola
Olavi
O
Vaskivuo
Tommi
T
Ryynanen
Markku
M
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005317:Fetal Growth Retardation / Q000209:etiology*; D015870:Gene Expression; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D018919:Neovascularization, Physiologic / Q000235:genetics*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D010920:Placenta / Q000378:metabolism*; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D011247:Pregnancy; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction