Quantification of preeclampsia-related microRNAs in maternal serum.

To identify the specific serum preeclampsia (PE)-related biomarkers, 10 microRNAs (miRNAs) were selected based on their reported aberrant (4 upregulated and 6 downregulated) expression in PE placenta. A total of 1,035 pregnant patients were enrolled. Finally, 32 pregnancies with PE and 32 healthy pregnancies were incorporated in the study. The expression of these 10 miRNAs in the different trimesters was determined by SYBR-Green reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Compared with that in the healthy controls, the expression levels of miR-152, miR-183 and miR-210 in PE serum were higher in the second and third trimester, whereas the expression of miR-182 was only higher in the third trimester. The expression levels of 6 miRNAs (miR-1, miR-328, miR-363, miR-377, miR-500 and miR-584) that were downregulated in PE placenta showed no significant differences between pregnancies complicated by PE and healthy pregnancies throughout the 3 trimesters. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic [standard error (SE)] during the 20-24th gestational week for predicting PE were miR-152: 0.94 (SE, 0.026), miR-183: 0.97 (SE, 0.031) and miR-210: 0.93 (SE, 0.018). In conclusion, the expression levels of serum miR-152, miR-183 and miR-210 were elevated since the second trimester in pregnancies complicated with PE, indicating their potentials as serum biomarkers for forecasting PE.