Fractalkine immunoreactivity in placental tissue samples from women with
preeclampsia
Akın Usta Gulay Turan
Ceyda Sancaklı Usta Ertan Adalı
Balikesir University School of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Balikesir University School of Medicine, Department of Pathology.
Balikesir Ataturk City Hospital, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Introduction
• Preeclampsia is a pregnancy-induced systemic inflammatory disorder
• Clinicaly identified by a combination of hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks of gestation.
• It is one of the most common causes of perinatal morbidity and mortality
• It affects approximately 5% of pregnant women.
• Fractalkine is one of chemokines and stimulate the migration of leukocytes and mediate inflammation.
• The aim of this study is to evaluate the placental fractalkine immunoreactivity and its association with maternal/fetal health outcomes in pregnant women with preeclamsia.
Materials and Method
• A total 84 pregnant women (54 preeclampsia and 30 control)
• All participants followed until delivery.
• All placental biopsy specimens were fixed in 10 % neutral formalin and then subsequently embedded in paraffin.
• Immunohistochemistry for fractalkine was performed on formalin-fixed and paraffin embedded sections
• Trophoblast proliferation
• Villous edema
• Vascularity of placenta
Clinical characteristics of the patients
Patients characteristics Preeclampsia (n=54) Controls (n=30) P value*
Age (years), median 30 (22-40) 28 (20-41) 0,083
Gravidity (n) 2 (1-4) 2 (1-5) 0,621
Parity (n) 1(0-3) 1(0-4) 0,910
Pregnancy age (weeks) 36w+4d 39w+1d <0,001
Prematurity, n (%) 22 (40.7%) 3 (10.0%) 0,009
Diabetes, n (%) 13 (24.1%) 2 (6.7%) 0,047
Fetal weight (g) 2815±561 3315±498 <0,001
Histopathological findings of placenta in women with and without preeclampsia
Patients characteristics Preeclampsia (n=54) Control (n=30) P value*
Cord insertion site Central
Marginal
40 14
28 2
0,032
Villous immaturity, n (%) 36 (67%) 15 (50.0%) 0,135
Villous edema, n (%) 17 (31.5%) 8 (26.6%) 0,645
Fibrin thrombus, n (%) 14 (25.9%) 7 (23.3%) 0,793
Trophoblast proliferation, n (%) 39 (72.2%) 14 (46.7%) 0,020
Syncytiotrophoblast layer thickening, n (%) 31 (57.4%) 9 (30.0%) <0,001 Vascularization of terminal villus 2.6 (1.2-4.6) 1.7 (1.1-3.8) 0,016
Fractalkine immunoreactivity 2.35±0.76 1.63±0.68 <0.001
Conclusion
• The discovered differences indicate that there is a possible relationship between histopathological alteration of placenta and the
immunohistochemical expression of fractalkine in pregnant women with preeclampsia.
