Comparative proteome profile of human placenta from normal and preeclamptic pregnancies

PLoS One. 2013 Oct 18;8(10):e78025. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0078025. eCollection 2013.

Abstract

To better understand the molecular mechanisms involved in pathological development of placenta in preeclampsia, we used LC-MS/MS to construct a large-scale comparative proteome profile of human placentas from normal and preeclamptic pregnancies. A total of 2636 proteins were detected in human placentas, and 171 different proteins were definitively identified between control and preeclamptic placentas. Further bioinformatics analysis indicated that these differentially expressed proteins correlate with several specific cellular processes which occur during pathological changes of preeclamptic placenta. 6 proteins were randomly selected to verify their expression patterns with Western blotting. Of which, 3 proteins' cellular localizations were validated with immunohistochemistry. Elucidation of how protein-expression changes coordinate the pathological development would provide researchers with a better understanding of the critical biological processes of preeclampsia and potential targets for therapeutic agents to regulate placenta function, and eventually benefit the treatment of preeclampsia.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Chromatography, Liquid
  • Computational Biology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Immunohistochemistry
  • Placenta / metabolism*
  • Pre-Eclampsia / metabolism*
  • Pregnancy
  • Proteome / metabolism*
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Substances

  • Proteome

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 21175122 and 91127036) and Technology Development Key Project Fund of Nanjing Medical University (Grants 2011NJMU269 and 2011NJMU270). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.