Growth modeling of the maternal cytokine milieu throughout normal pregnancy: Macrophage-derived chemokine decreases as inflammation/counterregulation increases

Several recent studies have shown differences in the maternal immune milieu at different phases of pregnancy,but most studies have been cross-sectional or of relatively few time points. levels of 42 cytokines were determined using a multiplex bead-based assay on archived serum from a cohort of pregnant women n=16 at median of 18 time points tested,from the first trimester through to parturition,per woman. unconditional growth modeling was then used to determine time-dependent changes in levels of these cytokines. macrophage-derived chemokine (mdc,aka ccl22) decreases as pregnancy progresses. il-1β,il-6,il-8,il-12p70,il-13,il-15,ip-10,and flt3-ligand increase as a function of gestational weeks,and ifnα2,il-1ra,il-3,il-9,il-12p40,and soluble cd40 ligand increase as a function of trimester. as pregnancy normally progresses,a maternal shift away from a type 2-biased immune response and toward an inflammatory/counterregulatory response is observed. © 2015 shernan g. holtan et al.