Gene expression profiling of Trophoblast Stem Cells with Progesterone Receptor (PGR) knockdown

As medical abortion has established itself as the significant method of terminating pregnancies, many studies in recent years has focused on Mifepristone, a principal agent used in this field. It can be found that much effort has been devoted to the research on the impact of Mifepristone on the decidua and embryo implantation process in the mechanism of abortion and contraception; the mechanism of its impact on trophoblast cells, however, still remains unclear. Therefore, the present study aims to fill the gap by investigating the effects of Mifepristone on villous trophoblasts in medical abortion patients. We have found that Mifepristone affects trophoblast cell proliferation and invasion through the progesterone receptor. We established PGR-knockdown trophoblast stem cells and collected these cells for comprehensive RNA-seq analysis. Overall design: Trophoblast stem cells extracted from normal human placental villi underwent gene knockdown of PGR (shPGR) and luciferase (Control). Subsequently, transcriptome sequencing was performed on both cell groups.