adiponectin participates in preeclampsia by regulating the biological function of placental trophoblasts through p38 mapk-stat5 pathway

Background: we aimed to investigate the participation of adiponectin in preeclampsia, and to explore the pos-sible mechanism. methods: a total of 52 patients with preeclampsia and 30 normal women with full-term pregnancy were en-rolled. immunohistochemistry was used to detect the localization of mapk and stat5. rt-pcr was used to detect the expression of adiponectin mrna in placental tissue of patients with preeclampsia and normal preg-nant women. western blot was used to detect the expression of adiponectin protein, mapk, p-mapk, stat5 and p-stat5 in placental tissue of patients with preeclampsia and normal pregnant women. results: p-p38 was highly expressed in placental trophoblasts of patients with preeclampsia, while p-stat5 was less expressed. expression level of p-p38 and p-stat5 in patients with preeclampsia were significantly different from those in normal pregnant women (p<0.01). expression level of adiponectin mrna was signifi-cantly lower in patients with preeclampsia than in normal pregnant women (p<0.05). level of p-p38 expression was negatively correlated with levels of adiponectin expression (r=-0.413, p<0.05). expression level of p-stat5 was positively correlated with expression level of adiponectin (r=0.526, p<0.01). conclusion: adiponectin participates in preeclampsia by regulating the biological function of placental tropho-blasts through p38 mapk-stat5 pathway.