Metabolomic Biomarkers in Serum and Urine in Women with Preeclampsia

OBJECTIVE To explore the potential of magnetic resonance (MR) metabolomics for study of preeclampsia, for improved phenotyping and elucidating potential clues to etiology and pathogenesis. METHODS Urine and serum samples from pregnant women with preeclampsia (n = 10), normal pregnancies (n = 10) and non-pregnant women (n = 10) matched by age and gestational age were analyzed with MR spectroscopy and subjected to multivariate analysis. Metabolites were then quantified and compared between groups. RESULTS Urine and serum samples revealed clear differences between women with preeclampsia and both control groups (normal pregnant and non-pregnant women). Nine urine metabolites were significantly different between preeclampsia and the normal pregnant group. Urine samples from women with early onset preeclampsia clustered together in the multivariate analysis. The preeclampsia serum spectra showed higher levels of low and very-low density lipoproteins and lower levels of high-density lipoproteins when compared to both non-pregnant and normal pregnant women. CONCLUSION The MR determined metabolic profiles in urine and serum from women with preeclampsia are clearly different from normal pregnant women. The observed differences represent a potential to examine mechanisms underlying different preeclampsia phenotypes in urine and serum samples in larger studies. In addition, similarities between preeclampsia and cardiovascular disease in metabolomics are demonstrated.