Project description:Prenatal exposures such as infections and immunisation may influence infant responses. We had an opportunity to undertake an analysis of responses in infants within the context of a study investigating the effects of maternal mycobacterial exposures and infection on bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine-induced responses in Ugandan infants. Gene expression profiles for pathways associated with maternal LTBI and with maternal BCG scar were examined using samples collected at one (n=42) and six (n=51) weeks after BCG immunisation using microarray. Interferon and inflammation response pathways were up-regulated in infants of mothers with LTBI at six weeks, and in infants of mothers with a BCG scar at one and six weeks after BCG immunisation. Maternal BCG scar had a stronger association with infant responses than maternal LTBI, with an increased proinflammatory immune profile.
Project description:Gene expression profiling of immortalized human mesenchymal stem cells with hTERT/E6/E7 transfected MSCs. hTERT may change gene expression in MSCs. Goal was to determine the gene expressions of immortalized MSCs.
Project description:Maternal obesity during pregnancy is associated with neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) risk. We utilized integrative multi-omics to examine maternal obesity effects on offspring neurodevelopment in rhesus macaques by comparison to lean controls and two interventions. Differentially methylated regions (DMRs) from longitudinal maternal blood-derived cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA) significantly overlapped with DMRs from infant brain. The DMRs were enriched for neurodevelopmental functions, methylation-sensitive developmental transcription factor motifs, and human NDD DMRs identified from brain and placenta. Brain and cffDNA methylation levels from a large region overlapping mir-663 correlated with maternal obesity, metabolic and immune markers, and infant behavior. A DUX4 hippocampal co-methylation network correlated with maternal obesity, infant behavior, infant hippocampal lipidomic and metabolomic profiles, and maternal blood measurements of DUX4 cffDNA methylation, cytokines, and metabolites. We conclude that in this model, maternal obesity was associated with changes in the infant brain and behavior, and these differences were detectable in pregnancy through integrative analyses of cffDNA methylation with immune and metabolic factors.
