Preeclampsia causes sex-specific transcriptional and proteomic changes in foetal erythroid cells

ABSTRACT: Preeclampsia (PE) has been associated with placental dysfunction, resulting in foetal hypoxia, accelerated erythropoiesis and increased erythroblast count in the umbilical cord blood (UCB). Although the detailed effects remain unknown, placental dysfunction can also cause inflammation, nutritional and oxidative stress in the fetus that can affect erythropoiesis. Here, we compared the expression of surface adhesion molecules and erythroid differentiation capacity of UCB hematopoietic stem/ progenitor cells (HSPCs), UCB erythroid profiles along with transcriptome and proteome of these cells between male and female foetuses from PE and normotensive pregnancies. While no significant differences were observed in UCB HSPC migration/ homing and in vitro erythroid colony differentiation, the UCB HSPC transcriptome and the proteomic profile of the in vitro differentiated erythroid cells differed between PE vs normotensive samples. Accordingly, despite absence of significant differences in the UCB erythroid populations in male or female foetuses from PE or normotensive pregnancies, transcriptional changes were observed during erythropoiesis, particularly affecting male foetuses. Pathway analysis suggested deregulation in mTORC1/AMPK signaling pathways controlling cell cycle, differentiation and protein synthesis. These results associate PE with transcriptional and proteomic changes in foetal HSPCs and erythroid cells that may underlie the higher erythroblast count in the UCB in PE.

INSTRUMENT(S):

ORGANISM(S): Homo Sapiens (human)

TISSUE(S): Erythrocyte, Blood Cell

DISEASE(S): Pre-eclampsia

SUBMITTER: Egor Vorontsov  

LAB HEAD: Zahra Masoumi

PROVIDER: PXD010364 | Pride | 2019-06-20

REPOSITORIES: Pride