TBX2 regulated genes in cultured human myometrial cells

Preterm birth, defined as delivery before the 37th week of gestation, is the most common cause of neonatal mortality and the second leading cause of death in children under five years of age. Preterm birth is associated with immediate and long term morbidity as well as growth and developmental delay. The lack of access to human myometrial samples during ongoing uncomplicated pregnancy seriously hampers proper understanding of the sequence of events leading to parturition initiation. In our previous work we used mouse as a model and profiled gene expression in mouse uterus from early E6.5 to late gestation E17.5. We identified Tbx2 as one of the putative upstream regulators during mid-gestation (E10.5, E12.5, E15.5). The role of TBX2 in human myometrium has not been investigated. In this study we identify the gene targets of TBX2 by overexpressing TBX2 in cultured telomerase immortalised myometrial cells followed by gene expression profiling using microarrays. pLenti-CMV-BLAST-DEST vectors harbouring TBX2 or EGFP (control) were transduced into telomerase immortalised human myometrial cells. Total RNA from three independent experiments were isolated 3 days post transduction and used for generating gene expression profiles by microarray hybridisation. Differential gene expression was calculated between TBX2 overexpressing cells and EGFP expressing controls.