Apoptosis and first trimester abortions

This study aimed to evaluate the expression of apoptotic, inflammatory, mitotic and viral markers that play a role in spontaneous abortions.

We immunohistochemically examined 128 placental samples from spontaneous abortion cases which were the study group and 49 coming from normal full-term pregnancies which were the control group.

Results Expression of TNF-a, NF-κB, M30, TUNEL and PHH3 was found higher with statistical significance in the study group (p< 0,001). Moreover, all of the positive cases for viral infection were found in the study group, while none positive cases for HSV or CMV were found in the control group. Furthermore, the more advanced stage of the pregnancy was correlated with statistical significance with higher levels of TNF-a (p< 0,001), NF-κB (p< 0,001), TUNEL (p< 0,001), M30 (p=0,020) and PHH3 (p< 0,001). On the other hand, higher age of women was correlated with statistical significance with higher expression levels of TNF-a (p< 0,001), NF-κΒ (p< 0,001), TUNEL (p< 0,001), M30 (p< 0,001) and PHH3 (p< 0,001) while the method of abortion didn’t seem to correlate with the expression of the markers. Furthermore, presence of CMV seemed to correlate with statistical significance with higher levels of TNF-a (p=0,002), NF-κΒ (p=0,002), TUNEL (p=0,006) and PHH3 (p< 0,001), while presence of HSV1 and 2 was correlated with statistical significance with higher levels of TNF-a (p=0,007), NF-κΒ (p=0,024), TUNEL (p=0,004), Μ30 (p< 0,001) και PHH3 (p< 0,001).

Conclusion This research proved a statistical significant correlation between higher levels of all tested biomarkers in spontaneous abortions.

Publication History

Article published online:
07 October 2020