Maternal blood pressure associates with placental DNA methylation both directly and through alterations in cell-type composition.

Background: Maternal blood pressure levels reflect cardiovascular adaptation to pregnancy and proper maternal-fetal exchanges through the placenta and are very sensitive to numerous environmental stressors. Maternal hypertension during pregnancy has been associated with impaired placental functions and with an increased risk for children to suffer from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases later on. Investigating changes in placental DNA methylation levels and cell-type composition in association with maternal blood pressure could help elucidate its relationships with placental and fetal development.

Molecular Mechanisms of Trophoblast Dysfunction Mediated by Imbalance between STOX1 Isoforms.

STOX1 is a transcription factor involved in preeclampsia and Alzheimer disease. We show that the knock-down of the gene induces rather mild effect on gene expression in trophoblast cell lines (BeWo). We identified binding sites of STOX1 shared by the two major isoforms, STOX1A and STOX1B.