Identification and analysis of key regulatory genes associated with pre-eclampsia: a systems biology approach

BACKGROUND: Pre-eclampsia is a disorder marked by hypertension during pregnancy that is a leading cause of maternal and infant morbidity, mortality, and premature births worldwide. Pre-eclampsia is thought to result from a poor placental perfusion of unclear causes. Gene expression profiles of placenta-associated genes have been shown to be altered in patients with pre-eclampsia, but the actual regulators remain unknown. We aimed to identify and analyze key regulatory genes associated with pre-eclampsia.METHODS: In this paper, we analyzed the gene expression profiles of placentas of women with first-trimester pre-eclampsia to identify key regulators; in addition, we performed protein-protein interaction, gene ontology (GO) enrichment, and pathway analyses.RESULTS: After applying log fold-change statistics, we found 231 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between normal and pre-eclampsia placentas. We confirmed through downstream analyses that these genes are associated with CYP-mediated steroid metabolism and hydroxylation in pregnancy, with glucuronidation and hyperbilirubinemia, and with other biological pathways.CONCLUSIONS: The identified DEGs associated with pre-eclampsia may be targeted in studies to clarify the pathogenesis of this condition.