Association of Fibrinogen-Like Protein 1 with Metabolic Disorders and Pregnancy Outcomes: A Case-Control Study

This study aimed to assess the relationship between fibrinogen-like protein 1 (FGL1) and adverse pregnancy outcomes (APOs) as well as metabolic disorders during pregnancy.

The pregnant women from 24 to 28 weeks of gestation were divided into different groups according to the number of metabolic abnormalities in a 2:1:1 ratio. A total of 120 cases were in the normal metabolic group, 120 cases were in the one metabolic disorder group, and 60 cases were in the two or more metabolic disorder groups. Blood collection and other sample collections were performed at 24-28 weeks of gestation.

Serum FGL1 levels increased gradually across the normal metabolism group, one metabolic disorder group, and the two or more metabolic disorders group (H=9.410, P=0.009). Serum FGL1 level was extensively higher in the gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) group compared to the normal glucose tolerance group (P<0.001). Compared with 190 women without APOs, serum FGL1 was higher in 59 women who developed adverse outcomes (P<0.05). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that the combination of FGL1 with traditional indicators had higher predictive performance for APOs, with the area under the AUC of 0.718, than that of traditional indicators alone (AUC=0.700).

High serum FGL1 may be a potential biomarker to monitor the severity of metabolic abnormality to enhance the predictive capability of traditional biomarkers for APOs.

Serum FGL1 in mid-pregnancy was closely related to metabolic disorders, GDM, and APOs.