Systematic identification of spontaneous preterm birth-associated RNA transcripts in maternal plasma.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Spontaneous preterm birth (SPB, before 37 gestational weeks) is a major cause of perinatal mortality and morbidity, but its pathogenesis remains unclear. Studies on SPB have been hampered by the limited availability of markers for SPB in predelivery clinical samples that can be easily compared with gestational age-matched normal controls. We hypothesize that SPB involves aberrant placental RNA expression, and that such RNA transcripts can be detected in predelivery maternal plasma samples, which can be compared with gestational age-matched controls.

Principal findings

Using gene expression microarray to profile essentially all human genes, we observed that 426 probe signals were changed by >2.9-fold in the SPB placentas, compared with the spontaneous term birth (S

SUBMITTER: Chim SS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3320630 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature