Transcriptome analysis of placentae reveals HELLP syndrome exhibits a greater extent of placental metabolic dysfunction than preeclampsia

ABSTRACT

Objective: The association between HELLP syndrome and preeclampsia has been investigated with conflicting conclusions. This study is to investigate the pathogenesis underlying these two diseases by analyzing placental transcriptome.

Methods: The gene expression profile downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus database was analyzed by R language.

Results: A total of 573 differentially expressed genes in HELLP syndrome and 358 in preeclampsia were identified, among which 295 were unique to HELLP syndrome. Some metabolism-associated pathways were uniquely enriched in HELLP syndrome.

Conclusions: HELLP syndrome exhibits a greater extent of placental metabolic dysfunction than preeclampsia, although these two diseases might share partial pathogenesis

KEYWORDS:

• HELLP syndrome
• preeclampsia
• metabolic dysfunction
• transcriptome

Disclosure statement

No competing interest for any of the authors.

Contributors

XTL designed and conceived the study; LLG and HQZ analyzed the data; HQZ and LLG drafted this manuscript; XTL, HQZ, LLG and YTC revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from Shanghai Medical Center of Key Programs for Female Reproductive Diseases [2017ZZ01016], Shanghai Key Program of Clinical Science and Technology Innovation [17411950500 and 17411950501] and National Natural Science Foundation of China (81741047).