Low abundance plasma proteins in labour

Abstract

Every year, millions of births worldwide are complicated by prematurity or difficult post-term deliveries, resulting in a high incidence of perinatal mortality and morbidity. Our poor understanding of human parturition is a key reason for our inability to improve the management of preterm and post-term birth. In this study, we used proteomic techniques to look into protein changes in placental blood plasma obtained from women before or after spontaneous or induced labour, with vaginal or caesarean section deliveries. Our aim was to understand the basic mechanisms of human parturition regardless of whether the signals that trigger labour are of maternal and/or fetal origin. We found proteins from 33 genes with significantly altered expression profiles in relation to mode of labour and delivery. Most changes in labour occurred in proteins associated with 'immune and defence responses'. Although the signal transduction and regulation of these pathways varied among modes of delivery, hepatocyte nuclear factor 1 homeobox A emerged as a shared protein in the mechanism of labour. Moreover, several apolipoproteins such as apolipoprotein A-IV and APOE were found to change with labour, and these changes were also confirmed in maternal plasma. This study has identified significant protein changes in placental intervillous plasma with labour and has revealed several pathways related to human parturition.

Longitudinal plasma inflammatory proteome profiling during pregnancy in the Born into Life study

“…Furthermore, the maternal plasma proteome has been found to change as a function of the length of gestation 15,21 and mothers diagnosed with fetuses small for gestational age 29 and intrauterine growth restriction 30 have shown altered proteome profile 29,30 . In addition, placental proteins have been found to be associated to onset of labour and mode of delivery 31 . Taken together, both maternal factors, fetal sex and birth outcomes have been associated with certain proteins during pregnancy or delivery and deviations from a healthy pregnancy/delivery might be expressed in inflammation proteins related to these determinants 26,27,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35] .…”

Preliminary analysis of the protein profile in saliva during physiological term and preterm delivery

“…Yuan et al ( 10 ) described protein profile of human placental blood plasma obtained from patients that underwent elective caesarean section (not in labour), spontaneous vaginal delivery, induction of labour vaginal delivery, spontaneous delivery, emergency caesarean section and induction of delivery. Apolipoproteins A-IV, E and C-III were considered to be associated with the onset of delivery while hepatocyte nuclear factor 1 homeobox A was common for human parturition regardless of type of delivery ( 10 ).…”

“…Elucidation and annotation of protein profile in plasma and in saliva may be useful for understanding the physiological processes underlying delivery and potential pathologies ( 7 ). There are several reports describing plasma and placental protein profile during human gestation ( 8 – 10 ); however, data regarding salivary proteins are scarce.…”

Preliminary data on possible protein markers of parturition in cows

“…Human studies provided with placental blood plasma protein profile that differed significantly between modes of delivery, for example spontaneous or induced labour, with vaginal or Caesarean section deliveries. Authors indicated major changes in proteins related to immune and defence response as well as apolipoproteins (Yuan et al., ).…”