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. 2021 Apr;43(4):361-369.
doi: 10.1007/s13258-020-01020-9. Epub 2021 Feb 8.

Genome wide methylation analysis to uncover genes related to recurrent pregnancy loss

Lixia Zhou  1 , Yudong Pu  1 , Yuxun Zhou  2 , Bin Wang  2 , Ye Chen  3 , Yang Bai  3 , Shuzhen He  4
Affiliations

Genome wide methylation analysis to uncover genes related to recurrent pregnancy loss

Lixia Zhou et al. Genes Genomics. 2021 Apr.

Abstract

Background: Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) refers to two or more consecutive spontaneous abortion before 24 weeks of gestation, representing 1% of couples of childbearing age. Epigenetic factors including dysregulation of DNA methylation of some genes may play a role in RPL.

Objective: To identify RPL related genes modulated by DNA methylation expressed in decidua and blood.

Methods: Three decidua samples each from RPL patients and normal controls were recruited to perform genome-wide bisulfite sequencing (GWBS) and transcriptome sequencing. Based on the above results, 22.52 kb of differential methylation regions (DMRs) from 17 genes were verified by bisulfite sequencing PCR at specific region (Hi-MethylSeq) in another 15 decidua (7RPL vs. 8 Controls) and 13 blood (5RPL vs. 8 Controls) samples.

Results: 23 genes showed significantly differential cytosine methylation status and distinct expression level between PRL patients and healthy controls synergistically. Three signaling pathways were found to be shared between genes with both hypomethylated differential methylation regions (DMR) and upregulated differential gene expression (DGE). The results from Hi-MethylSeq showed that the hypermethylation of SGK1 in both blood and decidua samples in RPL patients, which was consistent to its lower expression in endometrium reported earlier. SGK3 and CREB5 also showed modulated methylation level in RPL decidua.

Conclusion: Our finding supported that aberrant methylation of SGK1 and CREB5 could be a cause of the dysregulation of these gens in the endometrium, which is one of cause of reproductive failure. The function of SGK3 in reproduction system deserves further investigation.

Keywords: Genomic DNA methylation analysis; Hi-MethySeq; Recurrent pregnancy loss; SGK gene.

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