早产(preterm birth, PTB)指胎儿在完成37周妊娠前出生,是新生儿死亡的主要原因,与多种新生儿疾病和成年发生的慢性病相关。据双生子和家系研究报道,遗传因素约占早产风险的15%~35%,然而早产的分子流行病学机制目前尚不明确。本研究通过挖掘文献数据库和疾病数据库中与早产相关的文献,并结合两重过滤的方法,筛选出355个与早产相关基因。富集分析发现早产相关基因主要分子功能包括：受体配体活性、细胞因子受体结合、细胞因子活性和生长因子活性等;主要通路包括KEGG中富集的糖尿病并发症中的AGE-RAGE信号通路、Chagas病和IL-17信号通路和TNF信号通路等,以及Reactome中富集的多个与免疫相关的通路。早产相关基因与基因组其他基因相比较,转录本数量有差异(α = 0.1, P = 0.06),但在GC含量和基因长度上没有明显差异。本研究结果提示早产基因大多集中在免疫相关通路,具备与免疫过程密切相关的分子功能,为早产的遗传机制研究提供了重要资源。

Preterm birth (PTB) refers to birth before 37 completed gestational weeks. PTB is the leading cause of neonatal deaths and is associated with various neonatal complications and adult-onset chronic diseases. According to twin and family studies, genetic variants account for about 15% to 35% of the incidence of PTB. However, the molecular epidemiology of PTB is still unclear. By mining the PTB-related researches in the literature database and the disease databases, and combining two filtering methods, 355 PTB-related genes were selected. The enrichment analyses of molecular function revealed that the main functions of PTB-related genes include: receptor ligand activity, cytokine receptor binding, cytokine activity, growth factor activity, etc.; the main pathways from KEGG enrichment were the AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications, Chagas disease, and the IL-17 signaling pathway, the TNF signaling pathway, etc, as well as several immune-related pathways from Reactome enrichment. There were differences in the number of transcripts between PTB-related genes and other genes in the genome (α = 0.1, P = 0.06), but there was no significant difference in GC content and gene lengths. The results suggest that PTB-related genes are mostly in immune-related pathways, and have molecular functions closely related to immunity. Our work provides an important resource for the study of the genetical mechanisms of PTB.