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Distinct cytokine profiles in patients with preeclampsia

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Abstract

Objective

Preeclampsia (PE) is a common but serious pregnancy complication that adversely affects both maternal and fetal health. However, the mechanisms of its pathogenesis remain unclear, and effective biomarkers for early diagnosis are still lacking.

Methods

In this retrospective study, comprehensive bioinformatic analysis and logistic regression analysis were used to compare profiles of 48 serum cytokines in 27 PE patients with those in 41 normotensive pregnant subjects.

Results

The results revealed that serum cytokine profiles accumulated to different levels between the two groups, which had significant correlations with the clinical features of PE. Nine cytokines with high discriminatory capacity for diagnosising PE (AUC ≥ 0.7) were selected for inclusion in a multivariate logistic regression model for PE and calculated as a probability diagnostic formula. This model constructed from the panel of nine cytokines had better diagnostic performance than any individual cytokine (AUC = 0.97, 95% CI 0.94–1.00, P < 0.0001), with a sensitivity of 96.30% and a specificity of 90.24%.

Conclusions

The set of cytokine profiles and risk assessment model described here can serve as a basis for developing early clinical diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for PE.

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Data availability statement

Further information and requests for original data should be directed to and will be fulfilled by the lead contact, Yan Li (yanli.sdu@gmail.com).

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all the participants included in this study.

Funding

This study was supported by grants from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFC2702400), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82101784), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2020QH051, ZR2020MH039), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20200223), and the Young Scholars Program of Shandong University.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Ling Guo, Xiangxin Lan, and Shanshan Liu contributed equally to this work and share first authorship.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Reproductive Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, 250012, Shandong, China

    Ling Guo, Xiangxin Lan, Shiqin Zhu & Yan Li

  2. Key Laboratory of Reproductive Endocrinology of Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Jinan, 250012, Shandong, China

    Ling Guo, Xiangxin Lan, Shiqin Zhu & Yan Li

  3. Medical Integration and Practice Center, Shandong University, Jinan, 250012, Shandong, China

    Ling Guo, Xiangxin Lan, Shiqin Zhu & Yan Li

  4. Queen Mary School, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330036, Jiangxi, China

    Shanshan Liu

  5. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, 250021, Shandong, China

    Lianqiong Xu & Jinlai Meng

  6. Department of Cardiology, Shandong Provincial Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, 250021, Shandong, China

    Hong-jin Zhao

  7. Department of Cardiology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, 250021, Shandong, China

    Hong-jin Zhao

  8. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Shandong Provincial Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, 250021, Shandong, China

    Jinlai Meng

  9. Suzhou Research Institute, Shandong University, Suzhou, 215123, Jiangsu, China

    Yan Li

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  1. Ling Guo
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Contributions

YL, JLM, and H-JZ conceived and designed the project; LG, XXL, and SSL performed the experiments and analyzed the data; LQX and SQZ collected the clinical serum samples and information; LG and XXL wrote the manuscript; JLM and YL critically revised the manuscript. All authors have been involved in interpreting the data and approved the final version.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jinlai Meng or Yan Li.

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The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Cite this article

Guo, L., Lan, X., Liu, S. et al. Distinct cytokine profiles in patients with preeclampsia. Inflamm. Res. 72, 847–858 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00011-023-01709-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00011-023-01709-z

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