Gene expression profiling of placental villi from intrauterine and tubal ectopic pregnancies

The tubal ectopic pregnancy (TEP) is a severe pregnancy complication accounted for 10-15% pregnancy-related deaths owing to the implantation and growth of embryos in fallopian tubes. Placental villi from TEP exhibit significant difference compared with that from intrauterine pregnancy (IP) in total volumes, trophoblast differentiation and intravillous vascularization. To investigate the difference in expression profiles of placental villi from IP and TEP, placental villi were collected from each phenotype, separated from maternal tissues and analyzed by high-throughput sequencing. generated a mouse model in which p53 is activated in neural crest cells due to the expression of a mutant p53 protein (p53-25,26) that can bind to and stabilize wild-type p53. Here, we performed gene expression profiling on neural crest cells isolated from these embryos, to identify the transcriptional response to p53 activation during embryogenesis. RNA-seq was performed on placental villi from pregnant women at 6-8 gestational weeks. Exclusion criteria for all samples are: IP with EP histories, miscarriage, preeclampsia, and preterm delivery. EP with some risk factors associated with fallopian tubal abnormalities, e.g., smoking, obvious tubal inflammatory adhesions, previous fallopian tubal diseases, and tubal surgery histories, were also excluded for avoiding complications. In each case, gestational days was 40-64 days confirmed from the last menstrual period. n=5 for both IP and TEP.

输卵管异位妊娠（tubal ectopic pregnancy, TEP）是一类严重的妊娠并发症，胚胎在输卵管内着床并发育可引发该病症，其所致的妊娠相关死亡占妊娠相关死亡总数的10%~15%。相较于宫内妊娠（intrauterine pregnancy, IP）来源的胎盘绒毛，TEP来源的胎盘绒毛在总体积、滋养层分化及绒毛内血管化程度上均存在显著差异。为探究宫内妊娠与输卵管异位妊娠来源胎盘绒毛的表达谱差异，研究人员分别采集两类表型的胎盘绒毛，将其与母体组织分离后，采用高通量测序开展分析。研究人员构建了一款小鼠模型：该模型中，可结合并稳定野生型p53的突变型p53蛋白（p53-25,26）的表达，使神经嵴细胞内的p53通路被激活。本研究对从这些胚胎中分离得到的神经嵴细胞开展基因表达谱分析，以鉴定胚胎发生过程中p53激活所介导的转录应答。本研究对妊娠6~8孕周的孕妇的胎盘绒毛实施了RNA测序（RNA-seq）。所有样本的排除标准如下：存在异位妊娠（ectopic pregnancy, EP）病史、流产、子痫前期及早产史的宫内妊娠样本；伴有吸烟、明显输卵管炎性粘连、既往输卵管疾病及输卵管手术史等与输卵管异常相关危险因素的异位妊娠样本，均被排除以规避混杂干扰。所有纳入样本的妊娠天数均经末次月经确认，为40~64天。宫内妊娠组与输卵管异位妊娠组的样本量均为n=5。