Identification of microRNAs in exosomes isolated from serum and umbilical cord blood, as well as placentomes of gestational day 90 pregnant sheep

Abstract

Despite reports that circulating levels of maternal serum exosomes increase during pregnancy and that placenta-specific microRNAs (miRNAs) have been identified in humans, little is known about exosomes and miRNAs during pregnancy in agriculture animals. In this study, we characterized the expression of 94 miRNAs in ovine placentomes at gestation day (GD) 90 by real-time PCR, and then investigated the presence of these miRNAs in exosome samples isolated from maternal jugular blood in non-pregnant ewes and at GD30 and GD90 and in umbilical blood collected at GD90. In maternal jugular exosome samples, 13 miRNAs were present in lower and 12 miRNAs were present in higher amounts at GD90 compared to non-pregnant (GD0) or GD30. Additionally, 12 miRNAs were present in higher amounts in umbilical venous exosomes compared to umbilical arterial exosomes; only miR-132 was lower in exosomes isolated from umbilical venous blood than from umbilical arterial blood. In placentome samples, miR-34c and miR135a abundance was higher in cotyledon tissue than in caruncle, while miR-183 and miR-379 amounts were higher in caruncle than cotyledon tissue. Only miR-379 was differentially expressed in all serum exosomes and placentome samples. Pathway analysis predicted that differentially expressed maternal serum exosomal miRNAs target Cellular Growth and Proliferation and Organ Development pathways, while umbilical serum exosomal and placentomes miRNAs were predicted to target cellular development and organismal/embryonic development.

Plasma exosome profiles from dairy cows with divergent fertility phenotypes

“…We are exploring differences in these pathways, again considering that utilization of this information may derive potential biomarkers of fertility to support genetic gain in fertil-ity. We note with interest that some comparable initial experiments have been conducted in sheep (Cleys et al, 2014;Ruiz-Gonzalez et al, 2015). Our finding of altered immunologic pathway factors in the SUBFERT cows is consistent with views that infection or subclinical infection results in reduced fertility (Sheldon et al, 2008).…”

Embryotrophic effects of extracellular vesicles derived from outgrowth embryos in pre‐ and peri‐implantation embryonic development in mice

“…Most cells secrete diverse types of membrane vesicles that serve as principal messengers to transfer biomolecules between adherent cells (Choi, Kim, Kim, & Gho, ; Raposo & Stoorvogel, ; Valadi et al, ). Thus, recent studies of these membranous vesicles have focused on the concept of positive conditioning in biological fluids, including blood (Caby, Lankar, Vincendeau‐Scherrer, Raposo, & Bonnerot, ; Cleys et al, ), urine (Dear, Street, & Bailey, ), and body fluids from reproductive tract in vivo (Burns et al, ; Keller et al, ; Navakanitworakul et al, ) as well as the conditioned media (CM) of in vitro culture (Atay, Gercel‐Taylor, Kesimer, & Taylor, ; Millimaggi et al, ; Ratajczak, Wysoczynski, Hayek, Janowska‐Wieczorek, & Ratajczak, ).…”

Review: Fetal-maternal communication via extracellular vesicles – Implications for complications of pregnancies

“…Interestingly, the presence of placental exosomes has not been established in fetal circulation in human studies. However, Cleys et al [53] observed the presence of placental extracellular vesicles in umbilical cord blood and serum in pregnant sheep [53]. Moreover, miRNA analysis in vesicles isolated from umbilical cord blood showed significant difference compared with results of miRNA analysis in maternal serum.…”