IL-17 Increased in the Third Trimester in Healthy Women with Term Labor

Abstract

Citation Martínez-García EA, Chávez-Robles B, Sánchez-Hernández PE, Nuñez-Atahualpa L, Martín-Máquez BT, Muñoz-Gómez A, González-López L, Gámez-Nava JI, Salazar-Páramo M, Dávalos-Rodríguez I, Petri MH, Zuñiga-Tamayo D, Vargas-Ramírez R, Vázquez-Del Mercado M. IL-17 Increased in the third trimester in healthy women with term labor. Am J Reprod Immunol 2011; 65: 99–103 Introduction The function, peripheral blood expression, and physiologic importance of IL-17 is not well established. Detection of IL-17 in sera and plasma samples from patients with pre-eclampsia has been reported with inconsistent results. To establish the l levels of the IL-17 at peripheral level, we studied prospectively a cohort of 13 healthy pregnant women. Objective To evaluate the changes in serum levels of IL-17 in healthy pregnant women in a prospective cohort. Material and Methods Thirteen healthy pregnant women were prospectively followed to evaluate serum levels of IL-17. Each patient was evaluated at each trimester. IL-17 levels were measured by ELISA. The statistical analysis was done using repeated measures anova and Bonferroni′s multiple comparison test. Results IL-17 levels were significantly increased from first trimester with a mean of 14.61 up to 31.78 pg/mL at third trimester (P < 0.05), but when detectable, they were almost identical range in all trimesters. Conclusions We propose that IL-17 levels in healthy women are present with very similar range levels during the whole pregnancy but the average is increased during the third trimester maybe as a part of the complex network of cytokines as a result of implantation, fetal development, and labor process itself.