Abstract
IntroductionMaternal metabolism changes substantially during pregnancy. However, few studies have used metabolomics technologies to characterize changes across gestation.Objectives and methodsWe applied liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) based non-targeted metabolomics to determine whether the metabolic profile of serum differs throughout the pregnancy between pre-eclamptic and healthy women in the FINNPEC (Finnish Genetics of Preeclampsia Consortium) Study. Serum samples were available from early and late pregnancy.ResultsProgression of pregnancy had large-scale effects to the serum metabolite profile. Altogether 50 identified metabolites increased and 49 metabolites decreased when samples of early pregnancy were compared to samples of late pregnancy. The metabolic signatures of pregnancy were largely shared in pre-eclamptic and healthy women, only urea, monoacylglyceride 18:1 and glycerophosphocholine were identified to be increased in the pre-eclamptic women when compared to healthy controls.ConclusionsOur study highlights the need of large-scale longitudinal metabolomic studies in non-complicated pregnancies before more detailed understanding of metabolism in adverse outcomes could be provided. Our findings are one of the first steps for a broader metabolic understanding of the physiological changes caused by pregnancy per se.
Highlights
We applied liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) based non-targeted metabolomics to determine whether the metabolic profile of serum differs throughout the pregnancy between women with and without PE in the FINNPEC (Finnish Genetics of Preeclampsia Consortium) study
There were no differences in maternal age or body mass index (BMI) between the PE and control groups
Our work describes systemic metabolic changes PE and healthy pregnant women in early and late pregnancy
Summary
Conclusions Our study highlights the need of large-scale longitudinal metabolomic studies in non-complicated pregnancies before more detailed understanding of metabolism in adverse outcomes could be provided. Changes in insulin sensitivity are a hallmark of pregnancy and contribute to the metabolic changes, while nutrient transfer to the fetus are thought to impact the maternal metabolite levels (Hadden and McLaughlin 2009; Catalano 2014). Studies utilizing metabolomics technologies to characterize maternal metabolism during pregnancy are still relatively few (Lowe and Karban 2014; Zhao et al 2019). New technologies allow more detailed characterization of metabolic profiles in uncomplicated pregnancies. This may advance more comprehensive understanding of the pathophysiology of pre-eclampsia (PE), which is a common vascular pregnancy complication associated with exaggareted metabolic changes (Von Versen-Hoeynck and Powers 2007)
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