Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common complication during pregnancy, which can have harmful health consequences for both the mother and the fetus. Given the placenta's crucial role as an endocrine organ during pregnancy, exploring and validating key genes in the placenta hold significant potential in the realm of GDM prevention and treatment. In this study, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified from two databases, GSE70493 and PRJNA646212, and verified by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) in placenta tissues. DEGs expression was detected in normal or high-glucose-treated HTR8/SVneo cells. We also investigated the relationship between DEGs and glucose levels in GDM patients. By selecting the intersection of the two databases, we screened 20 DEGs, which were validated in GDM patients. We observed an up-regulation of SLAMF, ALDH1A2, and CHI3L2, and a down-regulation of HLA-E, MYH11, HLA-DRB5, ITGAX, GZMB, NAIP, TMEM74B, RANBP3L, PAEP, WT-1, and CEP170. We conducted further investigations into the expression of DEGs in HTR8/SVneo cells exposed to high glucose, revealing a significant upregulation in the expression of SERPINA3, while the expressions of HLA-E, BCL6, NAIP, PAEP, MUC16, WT-1, and CEP170 were decreased. Moreover, some DEGs were confirmed to have a positive or negative correlation with blood glucose levels of GDM patients through correlation analysis. The identified DEGs are anticipated to exert potential implications in the prevention and management of GDM, thereby offering potential benefits for improving pregnancy outcomes and long-term prognosis of fetuses among individuals affected by GDM.
Keywords: Gestational diabetes mellitus; bioinformatics; key genes; placenta; translational medicine; trophoblast.