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Placental miRNAs Targeting Cellular Stress Response Pathways Are Highly Expressed in Non-Hispanic Black People

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Abstract

Non-Hispanic Black (NHB) people have a 2.5-fold higher risk of maternal mortality when compared to non-Hispanic White (NHW) people. Neonates of NHB people are more likely to be born preterm and small for gestational age, which may be driven by structural racism. The placenta is very sensitive to the maternal environment and may play a critical role in the translation of environmental stressors to pregnancy outcomes. Our aim was to assess the placental miRNA expression profile in both NHB and NHW people and the association between differentially expressed miRNAs and pregnancy outcomes. Placentas were collected from 50 NHB and 74 NHW people with a normal singleton pregnancy undergoing elective cesarean section at term prior to the onset of labor. Placental miRNA expression was measured via whole-genome small RNA-sequencing in a subset of 77 placentas. Fifteen miRNAs were more highly expressed in the placentas of NHB people. Several of these miRNAs were associated with cellular stress response pathways, suggesting that they may be responding to environmental stressors. Placental miR-192-5p expression was lower among NHB people and was positively associated with neonatal adiposity, suggesting it may be sensitive to structural racism with potential impacts on fetal growth.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Mary Haghiac and Ms. Judi Minium for contributing to the recruitment and sample and data collection.

Funding

This research was supported by the National Institute of Health grant R01HD091735.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mother Infant Research Institute, Tufts Medical Center, 800 Washington Street, Box #394, Boston, MA, 02111, USA

    Fernanda Alvarado-Flores, Anastasia Savelyeva & Perrie O’Tierney-Ginn

  2. Magee Womens Research Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Tianjiao Chu & Yoel Sadovsky

  3. Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

    Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha

Authors
  1. Fernanda Alvarado-Flores
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  2. Anastasia Savelyeva
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  5. Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha
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  6. Perrie O’Tierney-Ginn
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Contributions

All authors have reviewed and approved the final manuscript, contributed to the interpretation of the data. P.O–G, F.L.A., and T.C. conceived of the design of the study and contributed to the data analysis. F.L.A., A.S., and T.C. performed the experiments. F.L.A. and P.O–G. drafted the manuscript, and Y.S., N.A-O., and T.C. critically reviewed the data and the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Perrie O’Tierney-Ginn.

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Ethics Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Tufts Medical Center (IRB #12842) and Metro Health Medical Center (IRB #1300650).

Consent to Participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Alvarado-Flores, F., Savelyeva, A., Chu, T. et al. Placental miRNAs Targeting Cellular Stress Response Pathways Are Highly Expressed in Non-Hispanic Black People. Reprod. Sci. 29, 2043–2050 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43032-022-00895-1

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