title: Gene expression profiling of placentas affected by pre-eclampsia.
abstract: Several studies point to the placenta as the primary cause of pre-eclampsia. Our objective was to identify placental genes that may contribute to the development of pre-eclampsia. RNA was purified from tissue biopsies from eleven pre-eclamptic placentas and eighteen normal controls. Messenger RNA expression from pooled samples was analysed by microarrays. Verification of the expression of selected genes was performed using real-time PCR. A surprisingly low number of genes (21 out of 15,000) were identified as differentially expressed. Among these were genes not previously associated with pre-eclampsia as bradykinin B1 receptor and a 14-3-3 protein, but also genes that have already been connected with pre-eclampsia, for example, inhibin beta A subunit and leptin. A low number of genes were repeatedly identified as differentially expressed, because they may represent the endpoint of a cascade of events effectuated throughout gestation. They were associated with transcriptional regulation and vasoregulative pathways, along with a number of hypothetical proteins and gene sequences with unknown functions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Hvidovre Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Kettegaard Allé 30, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark.
authors.forename: Anne Mette
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Hoegh
authors.forename: Rehannah
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Borup
authors.forename: Finn Cilius
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.forename: Steen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sørensen
authors.forename: Thomas V F
authors.initials: TV
authors.lastname: Hviid
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000235:genetics; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007249:Inflammation / Q000235:genetics; D028322:Inhibin-beta Subunits / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000235:genetics; D010920:Placenta / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D011247:Pregnancy; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: C103008:inhibin beta A subunit; D028322:Inhibin-beta Subunits