Metabolomic biomarkers in serum and urine in women with preeclampsia

PLoS One. 2014 Mar 17;9(3):e91923. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0091923. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Objective: To explore the potential of magnetic resonance (MR) metabolomics for study of preeclampsia, for improved phenotyping and elucidating potential clues to etiology and pathogenesis.

Methods: Urine and serum samples from pregnant women with preeclampsia (n = 10), normal pregnancies (n = 10) and non-pregnant women (n = 10) matched by age and gestational age were analyzed with MR spectroscopy and subjected to multivariate analysis. Metabolites were then quantified and compared between groups.

Results: Urine and serum samples revealed clear differences between women with preeclampsia and both control groups (normal pregnant and non-pregnant women). Nine urine metabolites were significantly different between preeclampsia and the normal pregnant group. Urine samples from women with early onset preeclampsia clustered together in the multivariate analysis. The preeclampsia serum spectra showed higher levels of low and very-low density lipoproteins and lower levels of high-density lipoproteins when compared to both non-pregnant and normal pregnant women.

Conclusion: The MR determined metabolic profiles in urine and serum from women with preeclampsia are clearly different from normal pregnant women. The observed differences represent a potential to examine mechanisms underlying different preeclampsia phenotypes in urine and serum samples in larger studies. In addition, similarities between preeclampsia and cardiovascular disease in metabolomics are demonstrated.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Biomarkers / blood
  • Biomarkers / urine
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Metabolome*
  • Metabolomics* / methods
  • Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular
  • Pre-Eclampsia / blood*
  • Pre-Eclampsia / urine*
  • Pregnancy
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Biomarkers

Grants and funding

The work is funded by the Liaison Committee between the Central Norway Regional Health Authority (RHA) and Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway, project number 46052200. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.