Relationships among the concentrations of 25 inflammation-associated proteins during the first postnatal weeks in the blood of infants born before the 28th week of gestation

• Published in: Cytokine (Philadelphia, Pa.) Pa.), 2012-01, Vol.57 (1), p.182-190
• Main Authors: Leviton, Alan, Allred, Elizabeth N., Yamamoto, Hidemi, Fichorova, Raina N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: adhesion; Biomarkers; blood; blood proteins; Blood Proteins - metabolism; chemokines; children; Gestational Age; Humans; Infant, Newborn - blood; Inflammation; Inflammation - blood; metalloproteinases; neonates; pregnancy; Preterm newborn; receptors
• ISSN: 1043-4666; 1096-0023
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cyto.2011.11.004

► Blood concentrations of inflammation-related proteins tend to vary with one another. ► High concentrations on day 1 predict high concentrations on day 7. ► Concentrations of VEGF, VEGF-R1, VEGF-R2, and IGFBP-1 vary with these proteins. Inflammation appears to be involved in processes leading to organ damage in preterm newborns, yet little is known about the relationships among elevated concentrations of inflammation-associated proteins in the blood of preterm newborns. In this exploratory study, we used an electrochemiluminescence method to measure 25 proteins in blood obtained on postnatal day 1 (range 1–3), day 7 (range 5–8), and day 14 (range 12–15) from 939 children born before the 28th week of gestation and evaluated to what extent those whose concentration of each protein was elevated (defined as in the highest quartile for gestational age and day the specimen was obtained) also had an elevated concentration of every other protein the same day or on a day 1 or 2weeks later (p