Serum levels of the adipokine chemerin in preeclampsia.

Objective: Hypothesising that maternal serum chemerin levels may be associated with preeclampsia, we investigated whether maternal serum chemerin levels differ between preeclamptic and healthy pregnant women. We also investigated the association of serum chemerin with metabolic parameters and the severity of the disease.

Methods: This case-control study included 144 women (72 healthy and 72 preeclamptic women) in the third trimester of a singleton pregnancy. Clinical data and maternal serum were collected. The two groups were carefully matched for maternal age and gestational age. The maternal levels of serum chemerin were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Results: The serum chemerin levels were found to be significantly increased in the women with preeclampsia (258.85±86.64 ng/mL) as compared with the healthy pregnant controls (210.80±47.34 ng/mL) (P<0.001). The serum chemerin concentrations in the severely preeclamptic women (289.6±74.43 ng/mL) were higher than those in the mildly preeclamptic women (228.1±87.99 ng/mL) (P<0.001). A stepwise regression analysis showed that the serum chemerin levels significantly and positively correlated with systolic blood pressure (P<0.001), free fatty acids (P<0.05) and serum creatinine (P<0.01).

Conclusions: Chemerin levels are significantly increased in preeclampsia and independently associated with markers of dyslipidemia and with the severity of the preeclampsia. Further studies need to show the onset of the chemerin increase and its putative involvement in the pathophysiology of preeclampsia.