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

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. Overall design: 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.