Differential Expression of Placental Growth Factor, Transforming Growth Factor-β and Soluble Endoglin in Peripheral Mononuclear Cells in Preeclampsia.

OBJECTIVE

To measure the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) mRNA expression of placental growth factor (PlGF), Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β), and soluble Endoglin (sEng) in the blood of preeclamptic and normotensive pregnant women.

STUDY DESIGN

Cross-sectional analytical study.

PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY

Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, University of Health Sciences, Lahore, from November 2016 to April 2018.

METHODOLOGY

The study included 50 normotensive and 57 preeclamptic patients (18-40 years of age), all in the third trimester of pregnancy. The preeclamptic group was further divided into early-onset preeclampsia (EOP) and late-onset preeclampsia (LOP). Blood samples from patients and healthy controls were collected and mRNA expression was measured (18 patients and 18 controls) by real time PCR. Statistical analyses were done using SPSS (version 22). The values were considered significant at 0.05 level of significance.

RESULTS

The PBMCs mRNA expression of PlGF, TGF- and sEng were significantly different between the preeclampsia and control group (p<0.001). A significant decrease in expression of TGF- was observed in LOP group compared to controls (p<0.001); whereas, the difference in the expression of EOP compared to controls was not significant (p=0.12). Similar to TGF-, the expression of PlGF was significantly decreased among EOP and LOP compared to controls. Detailed analysis of sEng showed significantly increased expression in both EOP and LOP as compared to healthy group (p<0.001).

CONCLUSION

There is a significant difference in extra-placental expression of PlGF, and sEng in preeclampsia.