Time‐dependent changes in placental mRNA expression after delivery due to delayed specimen collection

Abstract

Problem Current scientific guidelines recommend collecting placental specimens within two hours of delivery for gene expression analysis. However, collecting samples in a narrow time window is a challenge in the dynamic and unpredictable clinical setting, so delays in placental specimen collection are possible. The purpose of our analysis was to investigate temporal changes in placental gene expression by longitudinally sampling placentas over a 24 h period. Method of Study Eight placentas from individuals with uncomplicated, term pregnancies delivered by scheduled cesarean section were collected and sampled following the placental delivery and again at 1, 2, 4, 6, and 24 h post‐delivery. At each time point, biopsies of chorionic villous tissue were taken from 3 cotyledons to account for intra‐placental heterogeneity. The 3 biopsies from each time point were pooled prior to RNA extraction. Expression of 382 mRNA transcripts was quantified using the NanoString nCounter System. Fold change values were calculated for each time point relative to delivery, and a fold change threshold of 1.25 was used to determine a meaningful change from delivery. Results Based on a fold change threshold of 1.25, 84.3% of transcripts were stable for at least 1 h, 80.2% were stable for at least two hours, and 20.6% of transcripts were stable through the collection at 24 h. Conclusion Our results suggest that for some mRNA transcripts, expression changes as time to sample collection increases. We have developed a Web application to allow investigators to explore transcripts relevant to their research interests and to set appropriate thresholds to aid in determining whether placentas with delayed sample collection can be included in analyses (https://placentaexpression.foundationsofhealth.org/).

Obesity in pregnancy—Long‐term effects on offspring hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal axis and associations with placental cortisol metabolism: A systematic review

“…Three studies did not report whether the tissue was collected uniformly from the medial or lateral segments of the placenta (Keleher et al, 2021;Mina et al, 2015;Räikkönen et al, 2014) although tissue inflammation has been shown to be more prone in the lateral sections (Burton et al, 2014). Likewise, three of the studies (Keleher et al, 2021;Mina et al, 2015;Muramatsu-Kato et al, 2014) did not report on the sampling time interval, increasing the risk that placental mRNA degradation could have interfered with the results (Burton et al, 2014;Freedman et al, 2021). Furthermore, in the Finish studies (Räikkönen et al, 2014), information on the pregnant women's nutritional habits was not reported, even though licorice, a common exposure in Finland (Räikkönen et al, 2009(Räikkönen et al, , 2010Strandberg et al, 2001), is a potent inhibitor of HSD11β2 and to some extent, an inhibitor of HSD11β1 (Chapman et al, 2013;Räikkönen et al, 2017).…”