Metabolite Changes in Maternal and Fetal Plasma Following Spontaneous Labour at Term in Humans Using Untargeted Metabolomics Analysis: A Pilot Study

Katherine A. Birchenall, Gavin I. Welsh and Andrés López Bernal
Additional contact information
Katherine A. Birchenall: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, St Michael’s Hospital, Bristol BS2 8EG, UK
Gavin I. Welsh: Translational Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS1 3NY, UK
Andrés López Bernal: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, St Michael’s Hospital, Bristol BS2 8EG, UK

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 9, 1-16

Abstract: The mechanism of human labour remains poorly understood, limiting our ability to manage complications of parturition such as preterm labour and induction of labour. In this study we have investigated the effect of labour on plasma metabolites immediately following delivery, comparing cord and maternal plasma taken from women who laboured spontaneously and delivered vaginally with women who were delivered via elective caesarean section and did not labour. Samples were analysed using ultra high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Welch’s two-sample t-test was used to identify any significant differences. Of 826 metabolites measured, 26.9% (222/826) were significantly altered in maternal plasma and 21.1% (174/826) in cord plasma. Labour involves changes in many maternal organs and poses acute metabolic demands in the uterus and in the fetus and these are reflected in our results. While a proportion of these differences are likely to be secondary to the physiological demands of labour itself, these results present a comprehensive picture of the metabolome in the maternal and fetal circulations at the time of delivery and can be used to guide future studies. We discuss potential causal pathways for labour including endocannabinoids, ceramides, sphingolipids and steroids. Further work is necessary to confirm the specific pathways involved in the spontaneous onset of labour.

Keywords: human parturition; endocannabinoid; steroids; energy metabolism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/9/1527/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/9/1527/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:9:p:1527-:d:227121

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().