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CME Credit Offered
CME Credit Offered
Abstract Award
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Poster Session 4

(1140) Characterization of a 96-cytokine panel in blood of women with healthy pregnancies

Friday, January 31, 2025
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM  
Objective: Serological cytokines are potential biomarkers of pregnancy pathology. While this is a convenient non-invasive technique, establishing normal versus abnormal levels in pregnancy has been challenging, limiting its diagnostic value. Some cytokines vary between individuals or due to physiological factors. By evaluating a panel of 96 cytokines in serum from patients with normal pregnancies, our objective is to devise a comprehensive nomogram that integrates a complex cytokine profile and will allow determination of the normal versus abnormal cytokine levels.

Study Design: Serum samples collected at four timepoints (~12 weeks, 18-22 weeks, 26-30 weeks, 34-38 weeks) from 15 healthy pregnant subjects who had no pregnancy complications and delivered full-term were obtained from an institutional biobank. Human Cytokine 96-Plex Discovery Assay was performed. One-way ANOVA was used to analyze trends in each cytokine for each pregnancy. Cytokines with both low variability between timepoints and consistent trends across individuals were identified for further testing in clinical setting.

Results: Among the 96 cytokines (growth factors, chemokines, interleukins and others) that were assessed, levels of 54 significantly increased or decreased during pregnancy while 42 remained stable. Of those that showed change, 7 with low variability were manually picked: GROa, IL-27 and VEGF-A increased while BCA-1, IL-24, Lymphotactin, MCP-4 decreased during the course of pregnancy. Among those that showed no change during pregnancy IL-22, 6CKine (aka CCL21), Exotaxin 3, HMGB1, IL-11, IL-28A, MIP-3b were identified to have low variability.

Conclusion: Out of 96 tested cytokines, 54 change significantly during healthy pregnancy, which should be accounted for when studying maternal serum cytokines in various pregnancy pathologies. The remaining cytokines do not show level change over the course of pregnancy. Specific cytokines that are better suited for clinical setting were identified, setting up a foundation for studying cytokine levels and identifying cytokine footprint in specific pregnancy pathologies.