Maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy is associated with downregulation of miR-16, miR-21 and miR-146a in the placenta |
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Authors: | Matthew A Maccani Michele Avissar-Whiting Carolyn E Banister Bethany McGonnigal James F Padbury Carmen J Marsit |
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Affiliation: | 1.Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine; Brown University; Providence, RI USA;2.Department of Pediatrics; Women and Infants'' Hospital; Brown University; Providence, RI USA;3.Department of Community Health; Center for Environmental Health and Technology; Brown University; Providence, RI USA |
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Abstract: | Maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy is associated with poor fetal outcome and aberrant miRNA expression is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. In 25 human placentas, we analyzed the expression of four candidate miRNA previously implicated in growth and developmental processes: miR-16, miR-21, miR-146a and miR-182, and used three immortalized placental cell lines to identify if specific components of cigarette smoke were responsible for alterations to miRNA expression. miR-16, miR-21 and miR-146a were significantly downregulated in cigarette smoke-exposed placentas compared to controls. TCL-1 cells exposed to both nicotine and benzo(a)pyrene exhibited significant, dose-dependent downregulation of miR-146a. These results suggest that miR-146a is particularly responsive to exposures, and that smoking may elicit some of its downstream effects through alteration of miRNA expression.Key words: miRNA, placenta, cigarette smoking, nicotine, benzo(a)pyrene, epigenetics |
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