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INTSAMGEN-Internasjonalt samarbeid generelt

Prenatal causes of disease as revealed by altered gene expression

Awarded: NOK 0.25 mill.

The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study is a large, population-based pregnancy cohort where the main aim is to understand the etiology and mechanisms of serious disorders that may have their onset in early life. As yet, information, including question naires and biological samples from the father, mother and child, has been collected for about 50,000 pregnancies. The aim is to recruit 100,000 pregnant women by the end of 2007. We have not had funding to collect RNA, which requires special tubes with ad ded RNA-ase inhibitors for prevention of RNA degradation. A grant from the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. has been awarded to diagnose early autism, establishing a close scientific collaboration between Columbia University in New York and The N orwegian Institute of Public Health. For autism, many causal theories exist, among them hypothesies of viral infection in utero. As a project initiation we apply for funding to collect RNA from the umbilical vein, and argue that alterations in gene expres sion as well as the detection of viral nucleic acids will be of paramount interest for the understanding of autism as well as preterm birth. Thus, we aim to implement the collection of an extra tube of blood (about 3 ml) from the remaining 50, 000 pregnan cies. The tubes will be stored as such, and RNA will be extracted and analysed as part of nested-case control studies. Preterm birth causes much morbitidy and early death. There are many indications that inflammatory mechanisms are in part responsible for spontanuous preterm birth, and we will examine gene expression profiles to understand mechanisms in addition to the analysis of the presence of environmental factors.

Funding scheme:

INTSAMGEN-Internasjonalt samarbeid generelt

Thematic Areas and Topics

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