Pregnancy changes expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients

Background: pregnancy is associated with reduced activity of multiple sclerosis (MS). However, the biological mechanisms underlying this pregnancy-related decrease in disease activity are poorly understood. This data series contains the subset of data used to generate a MS signature comparing female MS specimens before pregnancy with respect to female MS specimens at ninth month pregnancy. Subjects were followed in the outpatients clinic and blood was collected before pregnancy and at the following time points during pregnancy: first trimester (gestational age at sampling 12 weeks), second trimester (24 weeks), and third trimester (36 weeks). Before-pregnancy samples were obtained in a treatment-free period and after anticonceptional drug withdrawal. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) obtained from 17 women (8 MS patients before pregnancy and 9 MS patients at 9th month pregnancy) were analyzed by oligonucleotide microarray technology.