Department of Paediatrics, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2010 Dec 30;10:87. doi: 10.1186/1471-2393-10-87.
Preterm birth is the leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality. Risk factors for preterm birth include a personal or familial history of preterm delivery, ethnicity and low socioeconomic status yet the ability to predict preterm delivery before the onset of preterm labour evades clinical practice. Evidence suggests that genetics may play a role in the multi-factorial pathophysiology of preterm birth. The All Our Babies Study is an on-going community based longitudinal cohort study that was designed to establish a cohort of women to investigate how a women's genetics and environment contribute to the pathophysiology of preterm birth. Specifically this study will examine the predictive potential of maternal leukocytes for predicting preterm birth in non-labouring women through the examination of gene expression profiles and gene-environment interactions.
METHODS/DESIGN: Collaborations have been established between clinical lab services, the provincial health service provider and researchers to create an interdisciplinary study design for the All Our Babies Study. A birth cohort of 2000 women has been established to address this research question. Women provide informed consent for blood sample collection, linkage to medical records and complete questionnaires related to prenatal health, service utilization, social support, emotional and physical health, demographics, and breast and infant feeding. Maternal blood samples are collected in PAXgene™ RNA tubes between 18-22 and 28-32 weeks gestation for transcriptomic analyses.
The All Our Babies Study is an example of how investment in clinical-academic-community partnerships can improve research efficiency and accelerate the recruitment and data collection phases of a study. Establishing these partnerships during the study design phase and maintaining these relationships through the duration of the study provides the unique opportunity to investigate the multi-causal factors of preterm birth. The overall All Our Babies Study results can potentially lead to healthier pregnancies, mothers, infants and children.
早产是围产期发病率和死亡率的主要原因。早产的危险因素包括个人或家族早产史、种族和低社会经济地位，但在早产前预测早产的能力仍未被临床实践所掌握。有证据表明，遗传学可能在早产的多因素病理生理学中起作用。All Our Babies 研究是一项正在进行的基于社区的纵向队列研究，旨在建立一个女性队列，以研究女性的遗传学和环境如何影响早产的病理生理学。具体而言，这项研究将通过检查基因表达谱和基因-环境相互作用，研究母体白细胞预测未临产妇女早产的预测潜力。
方法/设计：临床实验室服务、省级卫生服务提供者和研究人员之间建立了合作关系，为 All Our Babies 研究设计了一个跨学科研究设计。已经建立了一个由 2000 名妇女组成的出生队列来解决这个研究问题。妇女在知情同意的情况下提供血液样本采集、与医疗记录的链接以及与产前健康、服务利用、社会支持、情感和身体健康、人口统计学、乳房和婴儿喂养相关的完整问卷。在 18-22 周和 28-32 周妊娠期间，用 PAXgene™ RNA 管采集母体血液样本进行转录组分析。
All Our Babies 研究是投资于临床-学术-社区伙伴关系如何提高研究效率并加速研究的招募和数据收集阶段的一个例子。在研究设计阶段建立这些伙伴关系，并在研究期间保持这些关系，为研究早产的多因性因素提供了独特的机会。整个 All Our Babies 研究的结果可能会导致更健康的妊娠、母亲、婴儿和儿童。
