Genome wide identification of parturition associated genes using cdna microarray in the placenta of pregnant women between with labor and without labor

CDNA MICROARRAY IN THE PLACENTA OF PREGNANT WOMEN BETWEEN WITH LABOR AND WITHOUT LABOR JI-YOUN KIM, DONGHYUN CHA, JI-HYEON PARK, JIN-BUM CHANG, SOOK HWAN LEE, WOO-JIN LEE, Pochon CHA University-CHA General Hospital, South Korea, Seoul, South Korea, Tufts University, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Seoul, South Korea, Pochon CHA University-CHA General Hospital, South Korea, OBGY, Seoul, South Korea, Pochon CHA University, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Seoul, South Korea, Digital Genomics, Ltd., South Korea, Seoul, South Korea OBJECTIVE: To compare the gene expression profiles between the placenta with labor and without labor during delivery. STUDY DESIGN: To investigate how the expression of placental specific genes contributes to the mechanisms of parturition, we have analyzed differentially expressed genes using 7 placentas from pregnant women who have undergone cesarean section without labor and 7 placentas with labor. We performed genome-wide expression profiling using high-density oligonucleotide microarrays. The data obtained from 55,000 human genes were normalized and analyzed to identify genes with statistically significant changes in expression. All the analysis was done in FDR (false discovery rate) !0.01. RESULTS: Among the 55,000 genes that were screened in the microarray, 1054 genes in R 3-fold were found to be differentially expressed between the placentas with and without labor. Among these candidates, 860 genes were up-regulated and 194 genes were down-regulated. The up-regulated genes included S100A10, IFIT2, IGLC2, FCGR3A, which are well-known biological markers for parturition. CONCLUSION: The predominant changes in gene expression in labor were genes associated with the inflammatory response. At least one of these genes, has a distinct spatial pattern of expression and appears to be associated with the onset of physiologic labor. Other genes expressed in the placenta with labor may be associated with the pathophysiology of preterm labor.