基因组印记与胎盘发育的研究进展

Research progress of genetic imprinting and placenta development

基因组印记是指来源于双亲源性的等位基因只有一方表达,这些单亲源性表达的等位基因被称为印记基因。许多研究表明印记基因在胎盘中广泛存在,与胎盘的生长和发育以及母、胎间的营养物质交换等密切相关。而分析印记基因的功能有助于理解为何在哺乳动物的发育过程中基因会发生印记以及印记基因对发育的意义,相关印记基因的研究为理解人类疾病提供了新的角度,包括低体质量出生儿、遗传代谢性疾病以及妊娠并发症如先兆子痫、妊娠期糖尿病等等。因此本综述将从表观遗传角度探讨基因组印记与胎盘发育的关系。

Genetic imprinting is a special phenomenon that only one of the parental allelic genes expressed, and these allelic genes defined as imprinted gene. Many studys reported that imprinting genes are widely expressed in the placenta, and participated in the placental development, morphogenesis, and the maternal-fetal transference. The analysis of imprinted genes can help us to understand why these genes are imprinted during mammalian development and the significance of imprinted genes on development. Related studies of imprinted genes provide new perspectives for understanding human disease, including low birth weight infants, genetic metabolic diseases and pregnancy complications, such as preeclampsia and gestational diabetes. Therefore, this review will explore the relationship between genomic imprinting and placental development from epigenetic perspective.