Plasma Olink Proteomics Identifies CCL20 as a Novel Predictive and Diagnostic Inflammatory Marker for Preeclampsia

Inflammation is generally thought to be involved in the
occurrence and development of preeclampsia
(PE), but its specific effect on PE remains unclear. In the
present study, the expression levels of 92 inflammation-related proteins
were measured in the late pregnancy maternal plasma from patients
with PE (n = 15) and normal pregnant controls (n = 15) using the Olink inflammation panel based on the
highly sensitive and specific proximity extension assay technology.
A total of 28 inflammation-related markers differed between the PE
and control groups. Among them, fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF-21)
and cysteine–cysteine motif chemokine ligand 20 (CCL20) had
the largest fold changes. We further validated the levels of CCL20
in the late (43 with PE and 44 controls) and early (37 with PE and
37 controls) pregnancy maternal plasma using enzyme-linked immunosorbent
assay (ELISA). To the best of our knowledge, for the first time, CCL20
was found to be upregulated in the late and early pregnancy plasma
of patients with PE and had an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.753
and 0.668, respectively. In conclusion, patients with PE had increased
levels of most inflammatory markers, and CCL20 might be a novel potential
predictive and diagnostic biomarker for PE.