Project description:During pregnancy, the myometrium remains quiescent but at term, switches to a state capable of producing a series of coordinated contractions for the delivery of the fetus. Myometrial contractions of labour signify the normal physiological end-point of pregnancy but the biochemical onset of labour may occur at or before term via a series of changes in expression of labour associated genes that are responsible for controlling the activity of the uterus during pregnancy and parturition. There is increasing evidence that components of the cAMP-signalling pathway are up-regulated in the human myometrium during pregnancy to promote the relaxation of the myometrium until term. Our aim was to determine which cAMP-associated genes are important during pregnancy and parturition by exposing myometrial cells to forskolin and performing an a gene array. We then plan to study the trend of the cAMP-associated genes at different stages of gestation and during labour. In this study, we used microarrays to elucidate forskolin responsive genes in human myometrium. These data may provide a broader view of gene networks and cellular functions regulated by forskolin in human myometrial cells. In our future study, this will also help us understand the role of cAMP in human parturition. Primary cultures of human myometrial cells were grown from myometrial biopsies obtained at the time of elective caesarean section at term. Cells were exposed to forskolin (100 µM) for 48 hours, and then total RNA were extracted from each culture. Two comparisons were carried out including: 1. Control 2. Forksolin
Project description:During pregnancy, the myometrium remains quiescent but at term, switches to a state capable of producing a series of coordinated contractions for the delivery of the fetus. Myometrial contractions of labour signify the normal physiological end-point of pregnancy but the biochemical onset of labour may occur at or before term via a series of changes in expression of labour associated genes that are responsible for controlling the activity of the uterus during pregnancy and parturition. There is increasing evidence that components of the cAMP-signalling pathway are up-regulated in the human myometrium during pregnancy to promote the relaxation of the myometrium until term. Our aim was to determine which cAMP-associated genes are important during pregnancy and parturition by exposing myometrial cells to forskolin and performing an a gene array. We then plan to study the trend of the cAMP-associated genes at different stages of gestation and during labour. In this study, we used microarrays to elucidate forskolin responsive genes in human myometrium. These data may provide a broader view of gene networks and cellular functions regulated by forskolin in human myometrial cells. In our future study, this will also help us understand the role of cAMP in human parturition.
Project description:Purpose: To chart the human myometrial transcriptomes before and after the onset of labour. Methods: Tophat splice junction mapping of paired-end reads, HTSeq to generate counts, cufflinks to track transcripts, DESeq, edgeR and baySeq to detect differentially expressed genes and principal component analysis for clustering analyses. Results: We mapped on average 14 million paired-end reads per sample (counting each end individually) to the human genome (build hg19) and covered the expressed transcriptome about 13 times with a TopHat-HTSeq workflow. We performed a comparative analysis with an analogous microarray study (Mittal et al., 2010) and found some overlap between the RNA-seq and the microarray data. Conclusions: Our study is the first RNA-seq study of the human myometrium before and after the onset of labour. We show that while microarray and RNA-seq studies may complement each other, RNA-seq has a much greater resolution. At term with and at term without labour human myometrial mRNA profiles were generated by deep sequencing, using Illumina GAIIx (five biological replicates each).
Project description:This study identifies a transciptomic myometrial profile associated with dystocia in spontanous nulliparous term labour We used microarrays to compare myometrial biopsies obtained at cesarean section from women in spontaneous term labour
Project description:This study identifies a transciptomic myometrial profile associated with dystocia in spontanous nulliparous term labour We used microarrays to compare myometrial biopsies obtained at cesarean section from women in spontaneous term labour Women in spontaneous labour undergoing cesarean section for dystocia (slow progressing labour) compared to women who had progressed in the second stage
Project description:Circulating progesterone (P4) levels decline before the onset of parturition in most animals, but not in humans. This has led to the suggestion that there is functional withdrawal of P4 action at the myometrial level prior to labor onset. Mifepristone is widely used to induce human labour In this study, we aimed to establish and validate a model of human myometrial explants for the study of P4 action. Myometrial biopsies obtained at Caesearean section at term were dissected into explants after a portion was immediately snap-frozen (t=0). Transcriptomic comparison of paired explants and primary myometrial cells as well as the hTert immortalized myometrial cell line demonstrated that explants more closely resemble t=0.
Project description:Circulating progesterone (P4) levels decline before the onset of parturition in most animals, but not in humans. This has led to the suggestion that there is functional withdrawal of P4 action at the myometrial level prior to labor onset. Mifepristone is widely used to induce human labour In this study, we aimed to establish and validate a model of human myometrial explants for the study of P4 action. Myometrial biopsies obtained at Caesearean section at term were dissected into explants after a portion was immediately snap-frozen (t=0). Transcriptomic comparison of paired explants and primary myometrial cells as well as the hTert immortalized myometrial cell line demonstrated that explants more closely resemble t=0. Biopsies obtained from non-laboring women at elective Caesarean section at term were divided into 3: (i) dissected and immediately snap-frozen (t=0), (ii) dissected into 3x3x3mm3myometrial explants and (iii) processed for primary cell culture. Explants, primary cells at passage 4 (the typical passage our group uses for experiments) and hTERT cells were cultured for a period of 30 hours without treatment. Total RNA was extracted and microarray analysis performed. 6 replicates were used for this study.
Project description:We have generated genome-wide binding and expression datasets in uterine smooth muscle (myometrium) from murine models of pregnancy and labour. ChIP-seq and total RNA-seq experiments were conducted to evaluate changes in the genomic and transcriptomic landscape of the myometrium prior to, during, and after labour onset.
Project description:Differentially expressed mRNA transcripts in the placenta delivered by term spontaneous labour compared to those delivered by elective term cesarean section. We hypothesized that the labour process involves changes in mRNA expression in the placenta. To test this hypothesis, we interrogated the mRNA levels of >50,000 genes and transcript variants using gene expression microarray (Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array, Affymetrix) on 5 placentas collected from term spontaneous delivery and another 5 placentas collected from elective term cesarean delivery. To minimize the effect of gestational age on gene expression, these two groups of placentas were matched for their gestational ages at delivery. We have identified 134 and 128 genes that were up- or down-regulated, respectively, for more than 3-fold in the term (spontaneous) labour placentas compared to the term (elective) cesarean placentas (Mann-Whitney Rank Sum Test, p-value <= 0.05 after Benjamini and Hochberg adjustment for multiple testing). Experiment Overall Design: Placentas collected from (i) term spontaeous labour and (ii) elective term cesarean section were subjected to RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. To identify gene expression patterns that are commonly involved in term spontaneous labour, we analyzed 5 placentas from each of these 2 groups and tested for any differentially expressed genes by non-parametric statistical methods.