Maternal adaptation to physiological shifts during pregnancy is essential for both successful pregnancy, parturition and newborn health. The physiological changes that occur during pregnancy could be detected at the transcriptional level. However, little research has been conducted on gene regulation within maternal organs. We hypothesize that many differentially expressed genes during pregnancy are involved in maternal metabolic pathways. Analysis was done using mouse models examined at important gestational time points. Gene expression was examined in kidney, liver, and small intestine of pregnant FVB mice (N=5/timepoint) at four time points: gestational day 0,7,10,15,19. Placental expression was quantified at days 10,15, 19. This data was matched to mapped homologs of human genes involved in metabolic processes using Recon 2.2. Differentially expressed genes were identified using Wilcoxon rank sum tests (FDR adjusted to Q<0.1) and the software package LIMMA which created a linear model to detect differential expression over all timepoints (FDR adjusted to Q0.1). Pathway enrichment was performed through Panther (P0.05) using Reactome Pathways and revealed increased metablic activity.
