title: sCD40 ligand determined in maternal and umbilical cord blood in pregnancies complicated by pre-eclampsia with and without intrauterine growth retardation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was determination and comparative analysis of the maternal and umbilical cord sCD40L serum levels in pregnancies complicated by pre-eclampsia with and without intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) and in normotensive pregnancies.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was carried out on 16 patients with singleton pregnancies complicated by severe pre-eclampsia with appropriate-for-gestational-age weight infants and 14 pregnant patients with severe pre-eclampsia complicated by IUGR. The control group consisted of 13 healthy normotensive delivering patients. Five milliliters of blood were taken by venipuncture from each pre-eclamptic patient and from each woman from the control group before active phase of labor and 5 ml of umbilical vein blood were taken immediately after delivery and collected in sterile tubes. Maternal and umbilical serum sCD40L concentrations were estimated using a sandwich ELISA assay.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results reveal the higher levels of maternal and umbilical sCD40L serum levels in pregnancy complicated by pre-eclampsia with and without IUGR. The mean maternal values were 4.022 +/- 2.399 ng/ml in group P, 3.914 +/- 2.824 ng/ml in group PI and 0.885 +/- 0.064 ng/ml in healthy controls. The mean umbilical values were 2.633 +/- 1.984 ng/ml in group P, 2.703 +/- 1.996 ng/ml in group PI and 1.112 +/- 0.436 ng/ml in the control group. It seems that these higher concentrations of sCD40L protect maternal immune cells bearing CD40 receptor from Fas-mediated apoptosis. Our findings may suggest also enhanced platelet activation in pre-eclamptic patients. It may be one of the factors responsible for the enhanced procoagulatory and proinflammatory properties, and increased cytokine production, and endothelial cell dysfunction in pregnancies complicated by pre-eclampsia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Perinatology, Medical University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland. melaskowska@go2.pl
authors.forename: Marzena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Laskowska
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Laskowska
authors.forename: Bozena
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Leszczyńska-Gorzelak
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Oleszczuk
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D023201:CD40 Ligand / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000737:chemistry*; D005317:Fetal Growth Retardation / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011336:Probability; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D023201:CD40 Ligand