Metabolomic analysis of serum and placenta in preeclampsia

Abstract Background: Preeclampsia (PE) is one of the main causes of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality worldwide. This study was aimed to explore the potential metabolic alterations in women diagnosed with PE and reveal the underlying pathogenesis of disease.Methods: Healthy pregnant women and patients diagnosed with PE were recruited from August 2017 to February 2018. The metabolomic analysis of serum (n=90) and placenta (n=9) samples collected from the two groups were performed with the high performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole-time-of light mass spectrometry (HPLC-QTOF-MS).Results: In serum, 16 metabolites that were present in different concentrations between the two groups were identified, of which pyroglutamic acid (pGlu), methionine, glutamine and taurocholic acid may be used as potential PE diagnosis biomarkers with the area under ROC curve of 0.901, 0.909, 0.892 and 0.873 respectively. Furthermore, the metabolic pathways analysis with differential metabolites in serum and placenta samples showed that linoleic acid and alpha- linolenic acid metabolism, phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis, D-glutamine/D-glutamate metabolism, phenylalanine metabolism, glutathione (GSH) metabolism and tryptophan metabolism were significantly altered and might be involved in PE pathogenesis.Conclusions: These results showed the altered metabolic pathways could contribute to the pathophysiologic mechanisms of PE.