Alterations in the placental proteome in association with the presence of black carbon particles: a discovery study.

BACKGROUND

Exposure to ambient air pollution is known to cause direct and indirect molecular expression changes in the placenta, on the DNA, mRNA, and protein levels. Ambient black carbon (BC) particles can be found in the human placenta already very early in gestation. However, the effect of in utero BC exposure on the entire placental proteome has never been studied to date.

OBJECTIVES

We explored whether placental proteome differs between mothers exposed to either high or low BC levels throughout the entire pregnancy.

METHODS

We used placental tissue samples from the ENVIRONAGE birth cohort, of 20 non-smoking, maternal- and neonate characteristic-matched women exposed to high (n=10) or low (n=10) levels of ambient BC throughout pregnancy. We modeled prenatal BC exposure levels based on the mother's home address and measured BC levels in the fetal side of the placenta. The placental proteome was analyzed by nano-liquid chromatography Q-TOF mass spectrometry. PEAKS software was used for protein identification and label-free quantification. Protein-protein interaction and functional pathway enrichment analyses were performed with the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins (STRING) software.

RESULTS

The accumulation of BC particles in placenta was 2.19 times higher in the high versus low exposure group (20943.4 vs 9542.7 particles/mm³; p=0.007). Thirteen proteins showed a ≥ 2-fold expression difference between the two exposure groups, all overexpressed in the placentas of women prenatally exposed to high BC levels. Three protein-protein interactions were enriched within this group, namely between TIMP3 and COL4A2, SERPINE2 and COL4A2, and SERPINE2 and GP1BB. Functional pathway enrichment analysis put forward pathways involved in extracellular matrix-receptor interaction, fibrin clot formation, and sodium ion transport regulation.

DISCUSSION

Prenatal BC exposure affects the placental proteome. Future research should focus on the potential consequences of these alterations on placental functioning, and health and disease during early childhood development.

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of Competing Interest ☐ The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. ☒ The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Tim S. Nawrot has patent "Method for detecting or quantifying carbon black and/or black carbon particles" issued to Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Universiteit Hasselt. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.