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Physiology/Endocrinology

Poster Session 2

(421) Association between placental gene expression and IL-10 levels in maternal serum

Tuesday, February 13, 2024
3:30 PM – 5:00 PM  
Location: Prince George's Exhibit Hall CDE, Lower Atrium Level
Objective: Maternal inflammation is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. Interleukin 10 (IL-10), an immunoinhibitory cytokine found in serum, is indicative of systemic inflammation. We utilized novel placental gene expression analysis to evaluate differently expressed placental genes and IL-10 serum levels to explore pathways that may increase risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Study Design: This is a secondary analysis of a prospective randomized controlled trial of a racially diverse, low-income sample. Serum was collected twice during gestation between 12-24 and 32-40 weeks, and fresh placental villous tissue was collected at delivery. Serum IL-10 levels were log-transformed, standardized, and averaged across time points with standard deviation marking the increase. Placental genome-wide mRNA profiles were analyzed to identify transcripts showing >2-fold differential expression over the 4-SD range of maternal IL-10 variation, adjusting for potential confounders, including age, first prenatal BMI, race and ethnicity, newborn sex, GA at delivery, and mode of delivery. TELiS analyzed transcription factor activity.

Results: Maternal serum and placental biopsies were available for 428 patients. Mean gestational age at serum collections were 16.3±2.9 weeks and 34.3±1.6weeks. Higher maternal IL-10 in serum was associated with lower activity of key pro-inflammatory signaling pathways in placentas (AP1↓25%, p=.003; NF-kB↓53%, p=.003) and higher activity of the STAT family signaling pathways that mediate signaling through the IL-10 receptor (↑73%, p=.002) (Figure 1). There were no differences in pathways related to tissue hypoxia, immune response or neural signaling.

Conclusion: Circulating IL-10 in maternal blood in pregnancy is associated with reduced inflammatory signaling in placental tissues at delivery. Caution is needed in interpreting this correlation, but these data are consistent with the hypothesis that maternal IL-10 serum levels are related to placental inflammation, and could represent a target for clinical intervention.