Humoral immune transcriptome signature in myelomeningocele patients

Myelomeningocele (MMC) results from incomplete closure of the neural tube, and has a complex multifactorial etiology, including an inflammatory microenvironment.

We evaluated the contribution of humoral immune response for development of inflammatory milieu.

Using public repository Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), we retrieve dataset transcriptome from the amniotic fluid of ten fetuses with myelomeningocele and ten healthy control fetuses to found differential gene expression associated with disturbances and inflammatory signatures in MMC. The identified DEGs were submitted to enrichment, network, and matrix correlation analyses.

Our initial analysis revealed 90 DEGs in MMC, mainly associated with signaling pathways of inflammation, including the immune modules, humoral immune response and IFN-type I signatures. Protein-protein analysis (PPI) revealed an association with three protein networks; positive regulation of B cell proliferation constituted the largest network. Matrix correlation analyses showed that MMC alters the co-expression of genes related to inflammatory processes that promote microenvironment inflammation.

These results revealed an altered humoral immune response in MMC patients, contributing to an inflammatory profile and providing opportunities for identifying potential biomarkers in myelomeningocele disease.