Preliminary Study On The Expression Of Ferritin Light Chain In Preeclampsia Based On Placental Proteomics

Aims: Preeclampsia(PE)seriously threatens the safety of mother and fetus.The only definitive solution for PE is opportune delivery,so early prediction,diagnosis,and prevention are particularly important.However,there is no specific predictive or diagnostic biomarker for PE.This study is to identify potential novel biomarkers for PE based on placental data-independent acquisition(DIA)proteomics.Methods: DIA technology was used to identify differentially expressed proteins(DEPs)from placental tissues of late-onset PE patients(n=4)and normal pregnant women(n=5).Bioinformatics analyses,including Gene Ontology(GO)analysis,Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG)analysis,Protein-Protein Interaction(PPI)analysis and others,were performed to explore these DEPs and to further screen out the hub proteins.Western blot and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay were respectively used to verify the hub proteins’ expression levels in the placental tissues(6 per group)and the maternal plasma(23 early-pregnancy plasma and 30 late-pregnancy plasma per group).Results: A total of 52 DEPs were identified,including 34 upregulated and 18 downregulated.GO enrichment analysis indicate that these DEPs were mainly enriched in the GO terms related to dexamethasone stimulus and ferric iron binding.KEGG enrichment analysis revealed that Ferroptosis was one of the significantly enriched pathways.PPI analysis indicate that arginase-1(ARG1),ferritin light chain(FTL),and RNA cytidine acetyltransferase(NAT10)were hub proteins.Further verification demonstrated that FTL,which had certain diagnostic value,in placental tissues and early-and late-pregnancy plasma of PE patients was significantly decreased.Conclusion: DIA proteomics can provide powerful help for screening the biomarkers for PE.Bioinformatics analyses can provide a certain reference for understanding the biological function or pathway of PE.Besides,this is the first study to discover that FTL protein may be one of the novel biomarkers for late-onset PE.