scholarly journals Revisiting Steroidogenic Pathways in the Human Placenta and Primary Human Trophoblast Cells

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 1704
Author(s):  
Rona Karahoda ◽  
Sampada Kallol ◽  
Michael Groessl ◽  
Edgar Ontsouka ◽  
Pascale Anderle ◽  
...  

Steroid hormones play a crucial role in supporting a successful pregnancy and ensuring proper fetal development. The placenta is one of the principal tissues in steroid production and metabolism, expressing a vast range of steroidogenic enzymes. Nevertheless, a comprehensive characterization of steroidogenic pathways in the human placenta and potential developmental changes occurring during gestation are poorly understood. Furthermore, the specific contribution of trophoblast cells in steroid release is largely unknown. Thus, this study aimed to (i) identify gestational age-dependent changes in the gene expression of key steroidogenic enzymes and (ii) explore the role of trophoblast cells in steroid biosynthesis and metabolism. Quantitative and Droplet Digital PCR analysis of 12 selected enzymes was carried out in the first trimester (n = 13) and term (n = 20) human placentas. Primary trophoblast cells (n = 5) isolated from human term placentas and choriocarcinoma-derived cell lines (BeWo, BeWo b30 clone, and JEG-3) were further screened for gene expression of enzymes involved in placental synthesis/metabolism of steroids. Finally, de novo steroid synthesis by primary human trophoblasts was evaluated, highlighting the functional activity of steroidogenic enzymes in these cells. Collectively, we provide insights into the expression patterns of steroidogenic enzymes as a function of gestational age and delineate the cellular origin of steroidogenesis in the human placenta.

2002 ◽  
Vol 76 (15) ◽  
pp. 7578-7586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bodil Øster ◽  
Per Höllsberg

ABSTRACT Herpesvirus gene expression is divided into immediate-early (IE) or α genes, early (E) or β genes, and late (L) or γ genes on the basis of temporal expression and dependency on other gene products. By using real-time PCR, we have investigated the expression of 35 human herpesvirus 6B (HHV-6B) genes in T cells infected by strain PL-1. Kinetic analysis and dependency on de novo protein synthesis and viral DNA polymerase activity suggest that the HHV-6B genes segregate into six separate kinetic groups. The genes expressed early (groups I and II) and late (groups V and VI) corresponded well with IE and L genes, whereas the intermediate groups III and IV contained E and L genes. Although HHV-6B has characteristics similar to those of other roseoloviruses in its overall gene regulation, we detected three B-variant-specific IE genes. Moreover, genes that were independent of de novo protein synthesis clustered in an area of the viral genome that has the lowest identity to the HHV-6A variant. The organization of IE genes in an area of the genome that differs from that of HHV-6A underscores the distinct differences between HHV-6B and HHV-6A and may provide a basis for further molecular and immunological analyses to elucidate their different biological behaviors.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liangbin Zeng ◽  
Airong Shen ◽  
Jia Chen ◽  
Zhun Yan ◽  
Touming Liu ◽  
...  

The ramie mothCocytodes coeruleaGuenée (RM) is an economically important pest that seriously impairs the yield of ramie, an important natural fiber crop. The molecular mechanisms that underlie the ramie-pest interactions are unclear up to date. Therefore, a transcriptome profiling analysis would aid in understanding the ramie defense mechanisms against RM. In this study, we first constructed two cDNA libraries derived from RM-challenged (CH) and unchallenged (CK) ramie leaves. The subsequent sequencing of the CH and CK libraries yielded 40.2 and 62.8 million reads, respectively. Furthermore,de novoassembling of these reads generated 26,759 and 29,988 unigenes, respectively. An integrated assembly of data from these two libraries resulted in 46,533 unigenes, with an average length of 845 bp per unigene. Among these genes, 24,327 (52.28%) were functionally annotated by predicted protein function. A comparative analysis of the CK and CH transcriptome profiles revealed 1,980 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), of which 750 were upregulated and 1,230 were downregulated. A quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis of 13 random selected genes confirmed the gene expression patterns that were determined by Illumina sequencing. Among the DEGs, the expression patterns of transcription factors, protease inhibitors, and antioxidant enzymes were studied. Overall, these results provide useful insights into the defense mechanism of ramie against RM.


2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya A. Deyssenroth ◽  
Qian Li ◽  
Marina Lacasaña ◽  
Yoko Nomura ◽  
Carmen Marsit ◽  
...  

AbstractThe placenta is the principal organ regulating respiratory, nutritional, endocrine and metabolic functions on behalf of the developing fetus. Changes in gene expression patterns of placenta-specific genes may influence fetal growth. We profiled the expression of 17 genes related to placenta functioning in term placentas (n=677) to identify genes differentially expressed across birth weight categories [small (SGA), appropriate (AGA) and large (LGA) for gestational age].


Endocrinology ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 154 (10) ◽  
pp. 3864-3876 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Waclawik ◽  
Piotr Kaczynski ◽  
Henry N. Jabbour

The conceptus and endometrium secrete large amounts of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) into the porcine uterine lumen during the periimplantation period. We hypothesized that PGE2 acts on conceptus/trophoblast cells through auto- and paracrine mechanisms. Real-time RT-PCR analysis revealed that PGE2 receptor (PTGER)2 mRNA was 14-fold greater in conceptuses/trophoblasts on days 14–25 (implantation and early placentation period) vs preimplantation day 10–13 conceptuses (P < .05). Similarly, expression of PTGER2 protein increased during implantation. Conceptus expression of PTGER4 mRNA and protein did not differ on days 10–19. PGE2 stimulated PTGER2 mRNA expression in day 15 trophoblast cells through PTGER2 receptor signaling. PGE2 elevated aromatase expression and estradiol-17β secretion by trophoblast cells. Moreover, PGE2 and the PTGER2 agonist, butaprost, increased the adhesive capacity of both human HTR-8/SVneo trophoblast and primary porcine trophoblast cells to extracellular matrix. This PGE2-induced alteration in trophoblast cell adhesion to extracellular matrix was abolished by incubation of these cells with AH6809 (PTGER2 antagonist), ITGAVB3-directed tetrapeptide arg-gly-asp-ser or integrin ITGAVB3 antibody. PGE2 stimulated adhesion of porcine trophoblast cells via the estrogen receptor and MEK/MAPK signaling pathway. PGE2 induced phosphorylation of MAPK1/MAPK3 through PTGER2 and up-regulated expression of cell adhesion proteins such as focal adhesion kinase and intercellular adhesion molecule-1. Our study indicates that elevated PGE2 in the periimplantation uterine lumen stimulates conceptus PTGER2 expression, which in turn promotes trophoblast adhesion via integrins, and synthesis and secretion of the porcine embryonic signal estradiol-17β. Moreover, the mechanism through which PGE2 increases trophoblast adhesion is not species specific because it is PTGER2- and integrin-dependent in both porcine and human trophoblast cells.


Blood ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 104 (11) ◽  
pp. 2897-2897
Author(s):  
Torsten Haferlach ◽  
Helmut Loeffler ◽  
Alexander Kohlmann ◽  
Martin Dugas ◽  
Wolfgang Hiddemann ◽  
...  

Abstract Balanced chromosomal rearrangements leading to fusion genes on the molecular level define distinct biological subsets in AML. The four balanced rearrangements (t(15;17), t(8;21), inv(16), and 11q23/MLL) show a close correlation to cytomorphology and gene expression patterns. We here focused on seven AML with t(8;16)(p11;p13). This translocation is rare (7/3515 cases in own cohort). It is more frequently found in therapy-related AML than in de novo AML (3/258 t-AML, and 4/3287 de novo, p=0.0003). Cytomorphologically, AML with t(8;16) is characterized by striking features: In all 7 cases the positivity for myeloperoxidase on bone marrow smears was >70% and intriguingly, in parallel >80% of blast cells stained strongly positive for non-specific esterase (NSE) in all cases. Thus, these cases can not be classified according to FAB categories. These data suggest that AML-t(8;16) arise from a very early stem cell with both myeloid and monoblastic potential. Furthermore, we detected erythrophagocytosis in 6/7 cases that was described as specific feature in AML with t(8;16). Four pts. had chromosomal aberrations in addition to t(8;16), 3 of these were t-AML all showing aberrations of 7q. Survival was poor with 0, 1, 1, 2, 20 and 18+ (after alloBMT) mo., one lost to follow-up, respectively. We then analyzed gene expression patterns in 4 cases (Affymetrix U133A+B). First we compared t(8;16) AML with 46 AML FAB M1, 41 M4, 9 M5a, and 16 M5b, all with normal karyotype. Hierachical clustering and principal component analyses (PCA) revealed that t(8;16) AML were intercalating with FAB M4 and M5b and did not cluster near to M1. Thus, monocytic characteristics influence the gene expression pattern stronger than myeloid. Next we compared the t(8;16) AML with the 4 other balanced subtypes according to the WHO classification (t(15;17): 43; t(8;21): 40; inv(16): 49; 11q23/MLL-rearrangements: 50). Using support vector machines the overall accuracy for correct subgroup assignment was 97.3% (10-fold CV), and 96.8% (2/3 training and 1/3 test set, 100 runs). In PCA and hierarchical cluster analysis the t(8;16) were grouped in the vicinity of the 11q23 cases. However, in a pairwise comparison these two subgroups could be discriminated with an accuracy of 94.4% (10-fold CV). Genes with a specific expression in AML-t(8;16) were further investigated in pathway analyses (Ingenuity). 15 of the top 100 genes associated with AML-t(8;16) were involved in the CMYC-pathway with up regulation of BCOR, COXB5, CDK10, FLI1, HNRPA2B1, NSEP1, PDIP38, RAD50, SUPT5H, TLR2 and USP33, and down regulation of ERG, GATA2, NCOR2 and RPS20. CEBP beta, known to play a role in myelomonocytic differentiation, was also up-regulated in t(8;16)-AML. Ten additional genes out of the 100 top differentially expressed genes were also involved in this pathway with up-regulation of DDB2, HIST1H3D, NSAP1, PTPNS1, RAN, USP4, TRIM8, ZNF278 and down regulation of KIT and MBD2. In conclusion, AML with t(8;16) is a specific subtype of AML with unique characteristics in morphology and gene expression patterns. It is more frequently found in t-AML, outcome is inferior in comparison to other AML with balanced translocations. Due to its unique features, it is a candidate for inclusion into the WHO classification as a specific entity.


Genome ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
pp. 305-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jagesh Kumar Tiwari ◽  
Sapna Devi ◽  
S. Sundaresha ◽  
Poonam Chandel ◽  
Nilofer Ali ◽  
...  

Genes involved in photoassimilate partitioning and changes in hormonal balance are important for potato tuberization. In the present study, we investigated gene expression patterns in the tuber-bearing potato somatic hybrid (E1-3) and control non-tuberous wild species Solanum etuberosum (Etb) by microarray. Plants were grown under controlled conditions and leaves were collected at eight tuber developmental stages for microarray analysis. A t-test analysis identified a total of 468 genes (94 up-regulated and 374 down-regulated) that were statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05) and differentially expressed in E1-3 and Etb. Gene Ontology (GO) characterization of the 468 genes revealed that 145 were annotated and 323 were of unknown function. Further, these 145 genes were grouped based on GO biological processes followed by molecular function and (or) PGSC description into 15 gene sets, namely (1) transport, (2) metabolic process, (3) biological process, (4) photosynthesis, (5) oxidation-reduction, (6) transcription, (7) translation, (8) binding, (9) protein phosphorylation, (10) protein folding, (11) ubiquitin-dependent protein catabolic process, (12) RNA processing, (13) negative regulation of protein, (14) methylation, and (15) mitosis. RT-PCR analysis of 10 selected highly significant genes (p ≤ 0.01) confirmed the microarray results. Overall, we show that candidate genes induced in leaves of E1-3 were implicated in tuberization processes such as transport, carbohydrate metabolism, phytohormones, and transcription/translation/binding functions. Hence, our results provide an insight into the candidate genes induced in leaf tissues during tuberization in E1-3.


Author(s):  
Cynthia Webster ◽  
Laura Figueroa-Corona ◽  
Iván Méndez-González ◽  
Lluvia Soto-Álvarez ◽  
David Neale ◽  
...  

In land plants, heteroblasty broadly refers to a drastic change in morphology during growth through ontogeny. Juniperus flaccida and Pinus cembroides are conifers of independent lineages known to exhibit leaf heteroblasty between the juvenile and adult life stage of development. Juvenile leaves of P. cembroides develop spirally on the main stem and appear decurrent, flattened and needle-like; whereas, adult photosynthetic leaves are triangular or semi-circular needle-like, and grow in whorls on secondary or tertiary compact dwarf shoots. By comparison, J. flaccida juvenile leaves are decurrent and needle-like, and adult leaves are compact, short and scale-like. Comparative analyses were performed to evaluate differences in anatomy and gene expression patterns between developmental phases in both species. RNA from twelve samples was sequenced and analyzed with available software. They were assembled de novo from the RNA-Seq reads. Following assembly, 63,741 high quality transcripts were functionally annotated in P. cembroides and 69,448 in J. flaccida. Evaluation of the orthologous groups yielded 4,140 shared gene families among the four references (adult and juvenile from each species). Activities related to cell division and development were more abundant in juveniles than adults in P. cembroides, and more abundant in adults than juveniles in J. flaccida. Overall, there were 509 up-regulated and 81 down-regulated genes in the juvenile condition of P. cembroides and 18 up-regulated and 20 down-regulated in J. flaccida. Gene interaction network analysis showed evidence of co-expression and co-localization of up-regulated genes involved in cell wall and cuticle formation, development, and phenylpropanoid pathway, in juvenile P. cembroides leaves. Whereas in J. flaccida, differential expression and gene interaction patterns were detected in genes involved in photosynthesis and chloroplast biogenesis. Although J. flaccida and P. cembroides both exhibit leaf heteroblastic development, little overlap was detected and unique genes and pathways were highlighted in this study.


2017 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Peng ◽  
Huiqin Ma ◽  
Shangwu Chen

Lycium ruthenicum Murr., which belongs to the family Solanaceae, is a resource plant for Chinese traditional medicine and nutraceutical foods. In this study, RNA sequencing was applied to obtain raw reads of L. ruthenicum fruit at different stages of ripening, and a de novo assembly of its sequence was performed. Approximately 52.45 million 100-bp paired-end raw reads were generated from the samples by deep RNA-seq analysis. These short reads were assembled to obtain 164814 contigs, and the contigs were assembled into 84968 non-redundant unigenes using the Trinity method. Assembled sequences were annotated with gene descriptions, gene ontology, clusters of orthologous group and KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes)pathway terms. Digital gene expression analysis was applied to compare gene-expression patterns at different fruit developmental stages. These results contribute to existing sequence resources for Lycium spp. during the fruit-ripening stages, which is valuable for further functional studies of genes involved in L. ruthenicum fruit nutraceutical quality.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahar Shohat ◽  
Eyal Ben-David ◽  
Sagiv Shifman

AbstractGenetic susceptibility to Intellectual disability (ID), autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia (SCZ) often arises from mutations in the same genes, suggesting that they share common mechanisms. We studied genes with de novo mutations in the three disorders and genes implicated by SCZ genome-wide association study (GWAS). Using biological annotations and brain gene expression, we show that mutation class explains enrichment patterns more than specific disorder. Genes with loss of function mutations and genes with missense mutations were enriched with different pathways, shared with genes intolerant to mutations. Specific gene expression patterns were found for each disorder. ID genes were preferentially expressed in fetal cortex, ASD genes also in fetal cerebellum and striatum, and genes associated with SCZ were most significantly enriched in adolescent cortex. Our study suggests that convergence across neuropsychiatric disorders stems from vulnerable pathways to genetic variations, but spatiotemporal activity of genes contributes to specific phenotypes.


2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 179 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Lopera-Vasquez ◽  
M. Hamdi ◽  
V. Maillo ◽  
C. Nunez ◽  
M. Yanez-Mo ◽  
...  

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) act as intercellular communicators through their protein, lipid, and mRNA content. The interaction of EVs from oviducal environment and the first stages of embryo development is currently an enigma. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the developmental competence and the expression profile of bovine blastocysts cultured with previously purified EVs recovered from ampullary and isthmic oviducal fluid (OF) under different centrifugal forces. OF-EVs recovered from oviducts of slaughtered heifers in early luteal phase were quantified with a nanoparticle tracking analysis system, and their integrity and size were assessed by electron microscopy. In vitro-produced zygotes were cultured in SOF+3 mg mL–1 BSA (C–), C– with 3 × 105 OF-EVs/mL from the ampulla (A) and isthmus (I) isolated at 1 × 103 (A10k and I10k, respectively) and 1 × 105 (A100k and I100k, respectively) × g. A control culture group of SOF+5% FCS (C+) was included. Blastocyst development was recorded on Day 7, 8, and 9 (D0: day of fertilization). Blastocysts on Days 7/8 cultured in C–, C+, I10k, and I100k were used to measure the relative mRNA expression of genes related with membrane trafficking (AQP3, AQP11, and ATP1A1), metabolism (LDLR and LDHA), and epigenetics (DNMT3A, IGF2R, GRB10, and SNRPN) by RT-qPCR. One-way ANOVA was used for statistical analysis. The size of ampullary and isthmic OF-EVs was similar with a mean of 220 nm. The concentration of I10k was significantly lower compared with A100k (3.6 × 108 v. 10.5 × 108 EVs/mL, respectively; P < 0.05); however, no differences were found in the rest of the groups with a mean concentration of 7.6 × 108 EVs/mL. EVs and C– groups showed a delayed embryo development at Day 7 compared with C+ (range: 12.0–13.8 v. 20.6%, respectively, P < 0.05); however, it was compensated at Days 8 and 9 (Day 9 range: 28.5–30.8%). The water channel related protein AQP3, associated with blastocoel formation, water, and cryoprotectant movement during cryopreservation, was up-regulated in I10k and I100k blastocysts compared with C+. The lipid receptor LDLR, proposed as a regulator of lipid uptake in blastocysts, was significantly down-regulated in C+ compared with the other groups, a possible consequence of a higher concentration of lipids in the C+ group. The de novo DNA methyltransferase DNMT3A and the imprinting gene SNRPN were down-regulated in the C+ compared with I100k, suggesting alterations in imprinting. In conclusion, bovine isthmic OF-EVs supplementation in in vitro embryo culture has a positive effect on gene expression patterns of developmental related genes compared with serum supplementation, suggesting an association between the oviducal environment and the developing embryo. Funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (AGL2012–37510 and AGL2012–39652-C02–01).


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