title: Elevations of serum interleukin-12 concentrations in women with severe pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome.
abstract: The objective is to test the hypothesis that serum IL-12 concentrations would be elevated in women with severe pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome. The Methods used were as follows: Serum was obtained from women admitted to our Labor and Delivery unit diagnosed with severe pre-eclampsia or HELLP syndrome and normal control patients. IL-12 concentrations in these samples were determined by the use of two different and specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays for the p40 subunit and the intact p75 dimer. It was found that serum IL-12 (p40 subunit) concentrations were elevated in women with both severe pre-eclampsia (p = 0.011) or HELLP syndrome (= 0.004). Similar findings were noted for these patients when matched with control patients for maternal age, gestational age, and parity. Eleven women had elevations of serum IL-12 p75 dimer, and 10 of these 11 patients had severe pre-eclampsia or HELLP syndrome. In conclusion, we found that women with severe pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome commonly have detectable concentrations of the IL-12 p40 monomer and were more likely than normal control women to have detectable serum IL-12 p75 dimer. While the exact role of IL-12 in hypertensive disease during pregnancy is unclear, our data support the hypothesis that the regulation of IL-12 production and metabolism is abnormal in women with pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome, perhaps contributing to the immunologic alterations characteristic of these disorders.
authors.affiliation: University of Utah School of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Salt Lake City 84132, USA. dudley@msscc.med.utah.edu
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Dudley
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hunter
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: M W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Varner
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gately
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D017359:HELLP Syndrome / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D018664:Interleukin-12 / Q000097:blood*; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000378:metabolism*; D011247:Pregnancy; D015854:Up-Regulation / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D018664:Interleukin-12