Intrauterine growth restriction and placental gene expression in severe preeclampsia, comparing early-onset and late-onset forms

Abstract

AbstractObjective:To evaluate placental gene expression in severe early- or late-onset preeclampsia with intrauterine growth restriction compared to controls.Study design:Chorionic villus sampling was conducted after cesarean section from the placentas of five women with early- or late-onset severe preeclampsia and five controls for each preeclampsia group. Microarray analysis was performed to identify gene expression differences between the groups.Results:Pathway analysis showed over-representation of gene ontology (GO) biological process terms related to inflammatory and immune response pathways, platelet development, vascular development, female pregnancy and reproduction in early-onset preeclampsia. Pathways related to immunity, complement and coagulation cascade were overrepresented in the hypergeometric test for the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database. Ten genes (Conclusion:There are significant differences in placental gene expression between severe early- and late-onset preeclampsia when both are associated with intrauterine growth restriction.