Transcriptional analysis of bone morphogenetic protein 2 signaling in human placental trophoblast development and function

Previous studies have demonstrated the pro-invasive action of BMP2 signaling in human trophoblast cells in vitro. In this study, we investigated downstream transcriptional targets of BMP2 signaling using mRNA-sequencing on control and BMP2-treated primary human trophoblast cells (n=5). Gene ontology annotations revealed that differentially expressed genes were involved in multiple organ development and cellular functions. Cell adhesion and extracellular matrix organization were among the significantly associated terms. Overall design: Primary human trophoblasts were isolated from first-trimester placental villi. mRNA expression profiling was conducted on primary placental trophoblast cells from five first-trimester placentas (n=5) treated with vehicle control or 25 ng/ml BMP2 for 24 h.