Detection of serum major histocompatibility complex I (HLA‐1) and β2‐microglobulin (β2M) in pre‐eclampsia using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ).

Objective: The purpose of this preliminary investigation into the pathogenesis of pre‐eclampsia was to screen the differential proteins in the serum of pregnant women with normal pregnancy and early‐onset pre‐eclampsia using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ), so as to identify serum biomarkers for the early diagnosis of pre‐eclampsia. Methods: We examined the peripheral serum of 58 normal pregnant women and 42 pregnant women with early‐onset pre‐eclampsia using iTRAQ; the differentially expressed proteins were screened for bioinformatics analysis; and the expression of candidate proteins human leukocyte antigen‐1 (HLA‐1) and β2‐microglobulin (β2M) in placental tissues was detected using western blot. Results: We identified a total of 63 differential proteins in the serum of patients from the normal control group and the pre‐eclampsia group, and this included 24 up‐regulated proteins and 39 down‐regulated proteins. The western blot results of placental tissue showed reduced HLA‐1 expression (1.12 ± 0.23) in the placenta in the pre‐eclampsia group as compared with the normal control group (1.34 ± 0.22). Consistent with the results observed in the serum, β2M in the placenta in the pre‐eclampsia group was significantly elevated (1.05 ± 0.47) in comparison with the normal group (0.75 ± 0.33) (P < 0.05). Conclusion: In this study, we found that iTRAQ technology was useful for identifying differentially expressed proteins in the peripheral serum of pregnant women with pre‐eclampsia, and that HLA‐1 and β2M, which may be involved in the occurrence of pre‐eclampsia, show promise as predictive markers of pre‐eclampsia. Synopsis: This study used iTRAQ to identify differential proteins in pregnant women with pre‐eclampsia, indicating HLA‐1 and β2M as potential predictive markers for early diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]