Institute of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Int J Med Sci. 2022 Sep 25;19(11):1672-1679. doi: 10.7150/ijms.71047. eCollection 2022.
Preeclampsia is one of the most serious pregnancy complications. It may be caused by immunological changes in the early placental microenvironment. The contents of small EVs may serve as biomarkers of pregnancy complications. Evidence suggests that the balance between T helper 17 (Th17) and regulatory T (Treg) cells are critical for preventing preeclampsia. The study recruited 39 pregnant women with preeclampsia and 127 healthy pregnant women. We assessed the levels of both Th17 and Treg cytokines (IL-10, IL-17, IL-21, IL-22, and TGF-β) in their plasma and small EVs. We found significant differences in the levels of all cytokines in the plasma between the two groups during the second trimester. We also observed significant differences between the two groups in the levels of EV-encapsulated cytokines IL-21, IL-22, and TGF-β, as well as in total small EVs, during the second trimester. The ROC analysis showed that the classification efficiency (AUC) of TGF-β in small EVs was 0.81. TGF-β had the best discriminant ability of all the single EV biomarkers tested, the cross-validation of the accuracy was 0.89. Th17 and Treg cytokines in plasma and small EVs may contribute to maternal immune activation and clarify the potential mechanisms of small EVs and cytokines in preeclampsia.
子痫前期是最严重的妊娠并发症之一。它可能是由早期胎盘微环境中的免疫变化引起的。小细胞外囊泡（EVs）的内容物可能作为妊娠并发症的生物标志物。有证据表明，辅助性 T 细胞 17（Th17）和调节性 T（Treg）细胞之间的平衡对于预防子痫前期至关重要。本研究招募了 39 名子痫前期孕妇和 127 名健康孕妇。我们评估了她们血浆和小 EVs 中 Th17 和 Treg 细胞因子（IL-10、IL-17、IL-21、IL-22 和 TGF-β）的水平。我们发现两组孕妇在孕中期血浆中所有细胞因子的水平均存在显著差异。我们还观察到两组孕妇在孕中期 EV 包裹的细胞因子 IL-21、IL-22 和 TGF-β以及总小 EVs 的水平存在显著差异。ROC 分析显示 TGF-β在小 EVs 中的分类效率（AUC）为 0.81。TGF-β在所有测试的单个 EV 生物标志物中具有最佳的判别能力，准确性的交叉验证为 0.89。血浆和小 EVs 中的 Th17 和 Treg 细胞因子可能有助于母体免疫激活，并阐明小 EVs 和细胞因子在子痫前期中的潜在机制。
