The impact of maternal smoking, sex and gestational age on the transcriptome of the human fetal liver.

In utero smoke exposure has adverse consequences for the child, including premature delivery, smaller birth weight and predisposition to disease later in life. The fetal liver has major detoxifying roles in addition to orchestrating the function of multiple organ systems. Maternal smoking increases the fetal toxin burden, and is expected to cause changes in the human fetal liver physiology likely contributing to disease and disease predisposition. In this project the transcriptional response in fetal liver tissue was analysed in relation to maternal smoke exposure, fetal sex and gestational age. Total RNA, protein and DNA were consecutively extracted from the same liver biopsy of electively terminated second trimester fetal livers. Proteomic analyses on the protein fraction were performed to allow for an integrated analysis of both the transcriptional and translational changes.