Whole-genome transcriptome profiling in PFOS-treated uterine artery endothelial cells isolated from pregnant women

During pregnancy, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) exposure is linked to increased risks of preeclampsia and fetal developmental complications. Although experimental and circumstantial data suggest that PFOS induces endothelial dysfunction, leading to decreased uterine arterial blood flow and gestational hypertension, the precise regulatory mechanisms responsible for this effect remain unknown. To address this issue, we treated human uterine artery endothelial cells (hUAECs) isolated from pregnant women with PFOS and conducted a comparative transcriptomic analyses to understand the underlying mechanism of PFOS-induced endothelial dysfunction. Overall design: Human uterine artery endothelial cells (HUAECs) isolated from pregnant women were treated with 10 µmol/L PFOS or vehicle for 24 hours and total RNA was extracted (n=4). RNA-seq libraries were prepared using KAPA Stranded RNA-Seq Library Prep Kit (Illumina). Libraries were sequenced on Illumina NovaSeq 6000 instrument and image analysis and base calling were performed using Solexa pipeline v1.8 (Off-Line Base Caller software, v1.8). Sequence quality was examined using the FastQC software. The trimmed reads (trimmed 5', 3'-adaptor bases using cutadapt) were aligned to reference genome using Hisat2 software. The transcript abundances for each sample was estimated with StringTie, and the FPKM value for gene and transcript level were calculated with R package Ballgown. The differentially expressed genes and transcripts were also filtered using R package Ballgown.