A Peripheral Immune Signature of Labor Induction

To characterize labor-associated maternal immune system dynamics from labor induction to the start of active labor, serial blood samples from 15 participants were collected immediately prior to labor induction (baseline) and during the latent phase until the start of active labor. Using high-dimensional mass cytometry, a total of 1,059 single-cell immune features were extracted from each sample. A multivariate machine-learning method (LASSO) was employed to predict labor induction (minutes) with high accuracy. The most informative immune features include STAT5 signaling in central memory CD8+ T cells and pro-inflammatory STAT3 signaling responses across multiple adaptive and innate immune cell subsets. The prediction model may ultimately predict labor induction success as well as complications.