Gene expression profiling of placentas affected by pre-eclampsia.
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.
Hoegh
Anne Mette
AM
Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Hvidovre Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Kettegaard Allé 30, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark.
Borup
Rehannah
R
Nielsen
Finn Cilius
FC
Sørensen
Steen
S
Hviid
Thomas V F
TV
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
C103008:inhibin beta A subunit; D028322:Inhibin-beta Subunits