Project description:Impaired muscle growth as a result of IUGR is a major contributor to lifelong reductions in muscle mass (sarcopenia) and metabolic disease risk. We use an ovine model of chronic placental insufficiency which restricts nutrient supply from mother to fetus and results in intrauterine growth restriction. In our model of placental insufficiency and IUGR, fetal hindlimb muscles weigh less than normally-grown control fetuses and have smaller myofiber diameters. Given the frequent correlation between functional changes and transcriptional changes, we investigated the effect of chronic placental insufficiency and IUGR on fetal skeletal muscle gene expression. We found that gene expression in the skeletal muscle is significantly altered by chronic placental insufficiency. In gene ontology analysis, we found that genes involved in cell cycle regulation were most significantly affected, with downregulation of several cyclins. These observations may in part account for decreased muscle weight relative to brain weight observed in the late gestation IUGR fetus.
Project description:Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) impairs fetal growth and development, perturbs nutrient metabolism, and increases the risk of developing diseases in the postnatal life. However, the underlying mechanisms by which IUGR affects fetuses remain incompletely understood. Here, we applied high-throughput proteomics approach and biochemical analysis to investigate the impact of IUGR on fetal liver.
Project description:In this study, we profiled the placental proteome of IUGR twins and normal cotwins from 6 monochorionic twin pairs with selective intrauterine growth restriction (sIUGR).
Project description:In our mouse model of intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), we have discovered that IUGR promotes embyronic Sox2+ neural stem cell depletion as well as premature neurogenesis. Using RNA-seq, we strived to determine the differentially expressed molecular genes/pathways that may be responsible for such cellular differences between appropriately-grown and IUGR mouse offspring.
Project description:Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) represents a major obstetric challenge with perinatal complications and a risk factor of developing disease in adult life. Placental insufficiency is one of the common features accompanying IUGR. The aim of this study was to evaluate global placental gene expression profile in IUGR compared to normal pregnancies. Placental samples were collected by eight IUGR pregnancies with placental insufficiency ascertained by Doppler and eight healthy controls. A 30K Human Genome Survey Microarray v.2.0 (Applied Biosystems) was used to evaluate global gene expression profile. Principal component analysis showed good separation in terms of gene expression patterns between the groups. Pathway analysis with Bonferroni correction for multiple testing showed significant (p<0.05) up-regulation of inflammation mediated by chemokine and cytokine signalling pathway in the IUGR placentas. Genes involved in metabolism of glucocorticoids (HSD11B1 and DHRS2) were found differentially expressed. We found no imprinted genes to be differentially expressed and only one gene involved in epigenetic modifications (MBD3) to be down-regulated in the IUGR placentas, indicating that IUGR due to placental insufficiency is not associated to placental imprinting. Subgroup analysis between pure IUGR and IUGR with preeclampsia placentas showed only 27 differentially expressed genes suggesting common pathophysiology. Eight placental samples from normal human placenta compared to eight human placental samples from patients with intrauterine growth restrictions due to placental insufficiency
Project description:The study objective was to determine differentially expressed mRNA transcripts in skeletal muscle from fetal sheep and 30 day old lambs to determine persistent gene changes following placental insufficiency-induced intrauterine growth restriction.
Project description:Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in adulthood. A rat model of IUGR induced by bilateral uterine artery ligation at day 18 of gestation, which reduces the blood supply and critical substrates to the fetus, was used to assess the alterations of genome-wide histone modifications in IUGR islets. At 2 and 10 weeks of age, pancreatic islets were isolated and chromatins were extracted for ChIP-Seq study. Chromatin state of H3K4me3, H3K27me3, and H3K27Ac modifications was compared in the study.
Project description:Preeclampsia (PE) and Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR) are major contributor of perinatal morbility and mortality, these pregnancy disorders associated with placental ischemia and share many similar pathophysiological features. The aim of this study was to compare the placental gene expression profiles including mRNA and lnRNAs from pregnant women from four study groups; PE, IUGR, PE-IUGR and normal pregnancy (NP). Gene expression microarray analysis was performed on placental tissue obtained at the moment of delivery and results were validated using RTq-PCR. Differential gene expression analysis revealed that the largest transcript variation was observed in the IUGR samples compared to NP (n=461; 314 mRNAs: 252 up-regulated and 62 down-regulated) and 133 lncRNAs: 36 up-regulated and 98 down-regulated). We also detected a group of differentially expressed transcripts shared between the PE and IUGR samples compared to NP (n=39), including 9 lncRNAs with a high correlation degree (P <0.05). Functional enrichment of these shared transcripts showed that cytokine signaling pathways, protein modification and regulation of JAK-STAT cascade are over-represented in both placental ischemic diseases. These findings contribute to the molecular characterization of placental ischemia showing common epigenetic regulation implicated in the pathophysiology of preeclampsia and Intrauterine Growth Restriction
