Diagnostic signature and immune characteristic of aging-related genes from placentas in Preeclampsia

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Preeclampsia (PE) is a serious pregnancy syndrome. Advanced maternal age (≥ 35 years old) is one of the major risk factors of PE and placental aging is considered to be related to this disease. However, the mechanisms underlying these phenomena remain obscured.

Methods

Gene expression profiles of PE and non-PE placental samples were curated from the GSE75010 dataset. A diagnostic model was constructed and immune characteristics of PE subtypes were estimated.

Results

A total of 58 aging-related genes, which may be associated with PE, were identified. Among them, LEP and FLT1 may be key aging-related genes. Based on 5 top genes (PIK3CB, FLT1, LEP, PIK3R1, CSNK1E), a diagnostic nomogram for PE was built (AUC = 0.872 in the GSE75010 dataset). Three molecular subtypes were clustered, which had different immune and angiogenesis characteristics.

Conclusion

The present study suggests the potential implications of aging-related genes in diagnosing PE. Diverse immune characteristics may be involved in the placental aging of PE.

KEYWORDS:

• Preeclampsia
• aging-related genes
• immune
• diagnosis
• bioinformatics

Abbreviations

PE, Preeclampsia; DEGs, differentially expressed genes; RF, random forest; SVM, support vector machine; ROC, receiver operating characteristic; DCA, decision curve analysis; PCA, principal component analysis; GO, Gene Ontology; KEGG, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes; SOD, superoxide dismutase.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the generosity of the individuals who were involved in the dataset that is available for public analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability Statement

The datasets presented in the present study can be found in the GEO database (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/).

Author contributions

Ruiman Li, Xiufang Wang, and Andong He designed the study. Ka Cheuk Yip and Xiaoting Liu participated in collecting data. Xiufang Wang, Andong He, and Ka Cheuk Yip performed the data analysis. Xiufang Wang and Andong He wrote the manuscript. Ruiman Li helped to draft the manuscript. All authors reviewed and approved the manuscript.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10641963.2022.2130930

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by a grant from the China’s National Key R&D Programmes (Grant No. 2019YFC0121904) and a grant from the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (Grant No. 2022A1515012139).