Evaluation of maternal serum hypoxia inducible factor-1, progranulin and syndecan-1 levels in pregnancies with early- and late-onset preeclampsia

Objective: To determine the serum levels of HIF-1 , progranulin, and syndecan-1 in preeclampsia (PE) and normal pregnancy, and to compare whether these markers demonstrate any difference between early-onset PE (EO-PE) and late-onset PE (LO-PE).Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 27 women with EO-PE, 27 women with LO-PE, and 26 healthy normotensive pregnant controls matched for gestational age. Maternal levels of serum HIF-1 , progranulin, and syndecan-1 were measured with the use of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit.Results: Statistical analysis revealed significant differences between the control and the PE groups in progranulin (p<.001) and syndecan-1 (p<.001) levels. There were no significant differences in the serum HIF-1 levels between these groups (p=.069). When PE patients were evaluated by considering subgroups; statistical analysis revealed significant inter-group differences in all biomarkers. Serum progranulin levels were significantly higher in LO-PE compared with the other two groups (EO-PE versus LO-PE and LO-PE versus controls p=.000). Control group presented significantly higher syndecan-1 levels, than EO and LO-PE (p<.001). HIF-1 levels positively correlated with progranulin levels (r=.439, p=.000).Conclusions: Serum progranulin may have potential to be used as a biomarker for the differentiation of EO-PE and LO-PE. The co-operative action between HIF-1 and progranulin might play a key role in the pathogenesis of LO-PE. The predominant feature of LO-PE seems to be an inflammatory process, whereas in EO-PE placentation problem seems to be the main pathology.