Pregnancy-associated serum N-glycome changes studied by high-throughput MALDI-TOF-MS

Area of Science:

• Immunology
• Glycobiology
• Biochemistry

Background:

• Pregnancy necessitates immune suppression for maternal-fetal tolerance.
• Protein glycosylation, particularly sialic acid linkages, regulates immune responses.
• Pregnancy-associated changes in serum N-glycome and sialic acid linkages are poorly understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate pregnancy-associated changes in the human serum N-glycome.
• To analyze alterations in terminal sialic acid linkages (α2,3- and α2,6-) during and after pregnancy.
• To identify novel plasma glycosylation changes using a high-throughput workflow.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of serum N-glycome from 29 healthy women across 6 time points during and after pregnancy.
• Utilized high-throughput MALDI-TOF-MS with specific derivatization to distinguish α2,3- and α2,6-linked sialic acids.
• Employed software-assisted data processing for analyzing 77 N-glycans and 42 derived traits.

Main Results:

• Confirmed previous findings and identified novel associations of specific N-glycans (e.g., FA2BG1S1(6)) with delivery.
• Observed a general increase in both α2,3- and α2,6-linked sialylation during pregnancy, followed by a decrease post-delivery.
• Detected differential recovery rates for α2,3- and α2,6-linked sialylation of triantennary glycans after delivery.

Conclusions:

• A novel high-throughput workflow successfully identified significant changes in plasma glycosylation during pregnancy.
• The study provides new insights into the dynamic alterations of serum N-glycans and sialic acid linkages related to pregnancy.
• These findings contribute to understanding the immunological adaptations during pregnancy.