title: The impact of maternal smoking, sex and gestational age on the transcriptome of the human fetal liver.
design: The impact of maternal smoking, sex and gestational age on the transcriptome of the human fetal liver.
library_name: 117_s
library_construction_protocol: Fetuses collected by trained nurses and processed immediately. Fetal weight, morphology, sex, crown-rump length, ano-genital distance and supine distance were recorded. Blood samples were collected by inserting a needle into the chest cavity towards the heart, under the ribs.  The abdomen of the fetus was entered using scissors and tweezers to cut down the midline of the abdomen and under the rib cage to expose the internal organs. The liver was removed, placed onto autoclaved lint-free paper to remove excess connective tissue and blood. The liver was weighed. Three 30 mg pieces of liver were cut from the main lobe and snap frozen in separate tubes. A larger piece from the main lobe was fixed in NBF for sectioning. The remaining liver was snap frozen in a small plastic sleeve.  RNA was extracted from the liver samples using the Qiagen AllPrep DNA/RNA/Protein Mini kit as per manufacturer's instructions.  Illumina TruSeq Stranded mRNA Library Prep Kit