Mithal Leena B, Lancki Nicola, Ling-Hu Ted, Goo Young Ah, Otero Sebastian, Rhodes Nathaniel J, Cho Byoung-Kyu, Grobman William A, Hultquist Judd F, Scholtens Denise, Mestan Karen K, Seed Patrick C
Department of Pediatrics, Division of Infectious Diseases, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA.
Department of Preventive Medicine, Division of Biostatistics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jan 17;15(1):2233. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-84446-5.
Neonatal health is dependent on early risk stratification, diagnosis, and timely management of potentially devastating conditions, particularly in the setting of prematurity. Many of these conditions are poorly predicted in real-time by clinical data and current diagnostics. Umbilical cord blood may represent a novel source of molecular signatures that provides a window into the state of the fetus at birth. In this study, we comprehensively characterized the cord blood proteome of infants born between 25 to 42 weeks using untargeted mass spectrometry and functional enrichment analysis. We determined that the cord blood proteome at birth varies significantly across gestational development. Proteins that function in structural development and growth (e.g., extracellular matrix organization, lipid particle remodeling, and blood vessel development) are more abundant earlier in gestation. In later gestations, proteins with increased abundance are in immune response and inflammatory pathways, including complements and calcium-binding proteins. These data contribute to the knowledge of the physiologic state of neonates across gestational age, which is crucial to understand as we strive to best support postnatal development in preterm infants, determine mechanisms of pathology causing adverse health outcomes, and develop cord blood biomarkers to help tailor our diagnosis and therapeutics for critical neonatal conditions.
新生儿健康依赖于对潜在毁灭性疾病的早期风险分层、诊断和及时管理，尤其是在早产情况下。许多这类疾病通过临床数据和当前诊断方法难以实时准确预测。脐带血可能代表一种新的分子特征来源，它为出生时胎儿的状态提供了一个窗口。在本研究中，我们使用非靶向质谱和功能富集分析全面表征了25至42周出生婴儿的脐带血蛋白质组。我们确定出生时的脐带血蛋白质组在整个孕期发育过程中存在显著差异。在结构发育和生长中起作用的蛋白质（如细胞外基质组织、脂质颗粒重塑和血管发育）在孕期早期更为丰富。在孕期后期，丰度增加的蛋白质存在于免疫反应和炎症途径中，包括补体和钙结合蛋白。这些数据有助于了解不同胎龄新生儿的生理状态，这对于我们努力为早产儿提供最佳的出生后发育支持、确定导致不良健康结局的病理机制以及开发脐带血生物标志物以帮助定制针对严重新生儿疾病的诊断和治疗方法至关重要。
