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Selected Publication:
Teklic, K.
Correlation of Prenatal Human Milk Oligosaccharides with Maternal and Fetal Inflammatory Markers
Humanmedizin; [ Diplomarbeit ] Graz Medical University; 2019. pp. 88
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- Authors Med Uni Graz:
- Advisor:
- Jantscher-Krenn Evelyn
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- Abstract:
- Introduction: Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMOs) are complex glycans unique in structure and highly abundant in human milk. Their impact on the suckling infant include prebiotic, antiadhesive, cellmodulating and immunemodulating effects. This impact might be relevant for pregnant women, too, since circulating HMOs can be found in the mother’s blood during pregnancy. Hypothesis: We hypothesise that the maternal inflammatory status in early and midpregnancy influences serum concentrations of HMOs in pregnancy as well as in fetal cord blood. To test this hypothesis we performed association studies with the maternal and fetal inflammatory markers CRP, sICAM-1, MCP-1, MIP-1α and MIP-1β and the maternal HMOs 2’FL and 3’SL. Methods: For this prospective pilot study, 53 healthy pregnant women were recruited. Blood samples were taken three times during pregnancy and at delivery and analysed using clinical chemistry methods, High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)with fluorescence detection and multiplex assay technology. Data was analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics 23. Results: Data sets of 23 pregnant women were analysed. We found numerous significant correlations between maternal HMOs and maternal inflammation markers: CRP,sICAM-1, MCP-1 and MIP-1β correlated significantly with either 2’FL or 3’SL at distinct points of time. Moreover, we detected that maternal HMOs in midpregnancy are related to the fetal inflammatory markers CRP and sICAM-1. We could not reveal any significant correlation between MIP-1α and HMOs. Discussion: The associations between 2’FL, 3’SL, CRP, sICAM-1 and MCP-1 possibly indicate a link with inflammation. It remains difficult to interpret their relationship. Since pregnancy pathologies are often induced by inflammatory processes it would be helpful to further investigate the functions and interactions of both HMOs and inflammatory markers. In the future, HMOs might serve as biological markers to detect inflammatory conditions in pregnancy or could function as prophylactic therapeutics in pregnancy related pathologies.