Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 22, 2025
08:50
A Murine Model of Fetal Exposure to Maternal Inflammation to Study the Effects of Acute Chorioamnionitis on Newborn Intestinal Development
Published on: June 24, 2020
3.8K
Could maternal serum MFG-E8 level predict adverse first trimester pregnancy outcome? A preliminary study
Bircan Elçi1, Zeynep Yalçınkaya2, Ercan Tekin3
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Kırıkkale University, Kırıkkale, Turkey.
Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences
|July 21, 2023
Summary
Maternal serum milk fat globule-epidermal growth factor 8 (MFG-E8) levels were significantly lower in pregnancies with missed abortion compared to healthy or threatened abortion pregnancies. Further research is needed to establish MFG-E8 as a predictive marker.
Area of Science:
- Reproductive biology
- Biochemistry
- Obstetrics
Background:
- Milk fat globule-epidermal growth factor 8 (MFG-E8) is expressed in the endometrium and increases during implantation.
- MFG-E8 plays a role in the implantation process.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate maternal serum MFG-E8 levels in the first trimester of pregnancy.
- To compare MFG-E8 levels between healthy pregnancies, threatened abortions, and missed abortions.
Main Methods:
- Prospective, cross-sectional study of 90 pregnant women (30 healthy, 30 threatened abortion, 30 missed abortion).
- Maternal serum MFG-E8 levels analyzed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).
- Statistical analysis included variance analysis, post hoc tests, chi-square, and Fisher's exact tests.
Main Results:
- No significant differences in age, BMI, parity, or gestational week among groups.
- Mean maternal serum MFG-E8 levels were significantly lower in the missed abortion group (270 ng/mL) compared to threatened abortion (414.7 ng/mL) and healthy pregnant groups (474 ng/mL) (p=0.001).
- Significant differences observed in neutrophil and international normalized ratio values.
Conclusions:
- Maternal serum MFG-E8 levels may differ between live and non-live pregnancies.
- Larger studies are required to validate these findings and determine a predictive cut-off value for MFG-E8.
