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.药物流产（medical abortion）现已成为终止妊娠的主流手段，近年来诸多研究均聚焦于该领域的核心用药米非司酮（Mifepristone）。现有研究已针对米非司酮在流产与避孕机制中对蜕膜（decidua）及胚胎着床过程的影响开展了大量探索，但该药对滋养层细胞（trophoblast cells）的作用机制仍未明确。为此，本研究旨在填补这一研究空白，探究米非司酮对药物流产患者绒毛滋养层细胞（villous trophoblasts）的影响。本研究发现，米非司酮可通过孕酮受体（progesterone receptor, PGR）调控滋养层细胞的增殖与侵袭能力。我们构建了孕酮基因敲低（PGR-knockdown）的滋养层干细胞，并收集该类细胞开展全转录组RNA测序（RNA-seq）分析。实验整体设计：从正常人类胎盘绒毛中分离得到滋养层干细胞，分别构建孕酮基因敲低组（shPGR）与荧光素酶对照（Control）组，随后对两组细胞开展转录组测序。