title: Gene expression profiling reveals different molecular patterns in G-protein coupled receptor signaling pathways between early- and late-onset preeclampsia.
abstract: Early-onset preeclampsia and late-onset preeclampsia have been regarded as two different phenotypes with heterogeneous manifestations; To gain insights into the pathogenesis of the two traits, we analyzed the gene expression profiles in preeclamptic placentas. A whole genome-wide microarray was used to determine the gene expression profiles in placental tissues from patients with early-onset (n = 7; <34 weeks), and late-onset (n = 8; >36 weeks) preeclampsia and their controls who delivered preterm (n = 5; <34 weeks) or at term (n = 5; >36 weeks). Genes were termed differentially expressed if they showed a fold-change ≥ 2 and q-value < 0.05. Quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase PCR was used to verify the results. Western blotting was performed to verify the expressions of secreted genes at the protein level.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Six hundred twenty-seven genes were differentially expressed in early-compared with late-onset preeclampsia (177 genes were up-regulated and 450 were down-regulated). Gene ontology analysis identified significant alterations in several biological processes; the top two were immune response and cell surface receptor linked signal transduction. Among the cell surface receptor linked signal transduction-related, differentially expressed genes, those involved in the G-protein coupled receptor protein signaling pathway were significantly enriched. G-protein coupled receptor signaling pathway related genes, such as GPR124 and MRGPRF, were both found to be down-regulated in early-onset preeclampsia. The results were consistent with those of western blotting that the abundance of GPR124 was lower in early-onset compared with late-onset preeclampsia. The different gene expression profiles reflect the different levels of transcription regulation between the two conditions and supported the hypothesis that they are separate disease entities. Moreover, the G-protein coupled receptor signaling pathway related genes may contribute to the mechanism underlying early- and late-onset preeclampsia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics, Guangdong Women and Children's Hospital, Guangzhou, 511400, China.
authors.forename: Mengmeng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics, Guangdong Women and Children's Hospital, Guangzhou, 511400, China. Electronic address: njianmin@163.com.
authors.forename: Jianmin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.affiliation: Translational Medicine Center, Guangdong Women and Children's Hospital, Guangzhou, 511400, China. Electronic address: Liang_zhang_71@qq.com.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Translational Medicine Center, Guangdong Women and Children's Hospital, Guangzhou, 511400, China.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Translational Medicine Center, Guangdong Women and Children's Hospital, Guangzhou, 511400, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Translational Medicine Center, Guangdong Women and Children's Hospital, Guangzhou, 511400, China.
authors.forename: Weiping
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics, Guangdong Women and Children's Hospital, Guangzhou, 511400, China.
authors.forename: Dongmei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics, Guangdong Women and Children's Hospital, Guangzhou, 511400, China.
authors.forename: Yuheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics, Guangdong Women and Children's Hospital, Guangzhou, 511400, China.
authors.forename: Huikun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics, Guangdong Women and Children's Hospital, Guangzhou, 511400, China.
authors.forename: Longding
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D011247:Pregnancy; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled
keywords: Early-onset preeclampsia; G-protein coupled receptor signaling pathway; Late-onset preeclampsia; Microarray