Cell type specific differences in the transcriptomes of adipose derived stem cells and vaginal fibroblasts in patients with pelvic organ prolapse

The purpose of the study was to understand the molecular phenotypes of adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) and vaginal fibroblasts (VFBs) and whether pelvic organ prolapse (POP) affects their biological properties. We performed RNA sequencing of paired ASCs and VFBs from six patients with POP and six controls (CTRL). We found no differentially expressed genes (DEG) between POP and CTRL in ASCs and VFBs. Less stringent statistical analysis of VFBs transcriptome showed 23 genes with higher and 29 genes with 2-fold lower expression in POP compared to CTRL. Among the latter were five genes involved in the synaptogenesis pathway found to be significant. We were only able to validate POP related differences for VLDLR protein. We found 508 DEG with 4-fold difference between ASCs and VFBs (when POP and CTRL samples were combined for each cell type). The DEG with higher expression in each cell type formed distinct functional networks including Homeobox transcription factors, extracellular matrix (ECM) related proteins, growth factors, and others. These data show that cell-specific RNA populations are intrinsically more characteristic than the disease peculiarities and that VLDLR may play a role in POP pathogenesis.