Children's Health Research Institute, 800 Commissioners Road East, London, ON, N6C 2V5, Canada.
Department of Biochemistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 3K7, Canada.
BMC Med Genomics. 2019 Jun 27;12(1):91. doi: 10.1186/s12920-019-0548-x.
A normally developed placenta is integral to a successful pregnancy. Preeclampsia (PE) and intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) are two common pregnancy related complications that maybe a result of abnormal placental development. Placental microRNAs (miRNAs) have been investigated as potential biomarkers for these complications, as they may play a role in placental development and pathophysiology by influencing gene expression. The purpose of this study is to utilize next-generation sequencing to determine miRNA and gene expression in human placental (chorionic villous) samples from three distinct patient groups with early-onset (EO) PE, IUGR, or PE + IUGR.
Placental tissues were collected from four patient groups (control [N = 21], EO-PE [N = 20], EO-IUGR [N = 18], and EO-PE + IUGR [N = 20]), and total RNA was used for miRNA and RNA sequencing on the Illumina Hiseq2000 platform. For stringent differential expression analysis multiple analysis programs were used to analyze both expression datasets in each patient group compared to gestational age-matched controls.
Analysis revealed miRNAs and genes that are disease-specific, as well as others that were common between disease groups, which suggests common underlying placental pathologies in EO-PE and EO-IUGR. More specifically, 6 miRNAs and 22 genes were identified to be differentially expressed in all three patient groups. In addition, integrative analysis between the miRNA and gene expression datasets revealed candidate gene targets for miRNAs of interest.
Integration of miRNA and RNA profiling in the same three subgroups of pregnancy complications, provides an alternate level of molecular information, in addition it can be used to better understand both unique and common molecular mechanisms involved in the pathophysiology of these diseases.
正常发育的胎盘是成功妊娠的关键。子痫前期（PE）和宫内生长受限（IUGR）是两种常见的妊娠相关并发症，可能是胎盘发育异常的结果。胎盘 microRNAs（miRNAs）已被研究为这些并发症的潜在生物标志物，因为它们可能通过影响基因表达在胎盘发育和病理生理学中发挥作用。本研究的目的是利用下一代测序技术确定来自三个不同患者组（早发性（EO）PE、IUGR 或 PE+IUGR）的人胎盘（绒毛膜绒毛）样本中的 miRNA 和基因表达。
从四个患者组（对照组 [N=21]、EO-PE [N=20]、EO-IUGR [N=18] 和 EO-PE+IUGR [N=20]）收集胎盘组织，并使用总 RNA 在 Illumina Hiseq2000 平台上进行 miRNA 和 RNA 测序。为了进行严格的差异表达分析，使用多个分析程序对每个患者组与胎龄匹配的对照组进行了两个表达数据集的分析。
分析显示了疾病特异性的 miRNAs 和基因，以及疾病组之间共同的其他基因，这表明 EO-PE 和 EO-IUGR 中存在共同的潜在胎盘病理。更具体地说，在所有三个患者组中，有 6 个 miRNAs 和 22 个基因被鉴定为差异表达。此外，miRNA 和基因表达数据集的综合分析揭示了感兴趣的 miRNA 的候选基因靶标。
在相同的三个妊娠并发症亚组中整合 miRNA 和 RNA 谱分析提供了分子信息的另一个层面，此外，它可以用于更好地理解这些疾病病理生理学中涉及的独特和共同的分子机制。
