Relationship between serum cytokine and homocysteine levels in pregnant women and hypertension during pregnancy

  AIM  To explore the relationship between the expression levels of serum cytokines and homocysteine (homocysteine, Hcy) in pregnant women and hypertension during pregnancy.

  METHODS  A retrospective analysis of the clinical data of 113 patients with hypertension during pregnancy admitted to our hospital from 2020 to March 2021 was made, including 62 patients with mild preeclampsia and 51 patients with severe preeclampsia, and 70 normal pregnant women came to our hospital for healthy physical examination during the same period served as the control group. Hcy, immune cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-4 (IL-4), Cystatin C (CysC), hypersensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and D-Dimer (DD) levels were compared between groups. The relationship between Hcy, TNF-α, IL-4, CysC, hs-CRP and DD levels and hypertension during pregnancy was analyzed using Person correlation analysis.

  RESULTS  ① TNF in pregnancy induced hypertension group- α The level of IL-4 in pregnancy induced hypertension group was significantly lower than that in normal pregnancy group (P<0.01); ② Hcy, CysC, hs CRP and D-D water in pregnancy induced hypertension group were significantly higher than those in normal pregnancy group (P<0.01); ③ Spearman correlation analysis showed that the severity of gestational hypertension and TNF-α (r=0.534), Hcy (r=0.95), CysC (r=0.562) and hs CRP (r=0.988) were significantly positively correlated with IL-4 (r=−0.516), P<0.01.

  CONCLUSION  The levels of TNF-α, Hcy, CysC, hs-CRP and IL-4 are closely related to hypertension during pregnancy and they may be important factors in the progression of the disease. Close observation of the above indicators during pregnancy is helpful for the diagnosis and treatment of the disease.