Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
26. ULUSAL ve 9. ULUSLARARASI BİYOİSTATİSTİK KONGRESİ, Adana, Türkiye, 5 - 08 Kasım 2025, cilt.1, ss.48-49, (Özet Bildiri)
Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the serum proteomic profiles of pregnant women with intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) and to determine whether they exhibit distinct protein signatures compared to uncomplicated pregnancies. The hypothesis is that pregnancies complicated by ICP will show significant alterations in serum protein expression, which may indicate potential biomarkers (Starodubtseva et al., 2025; Zeng, Hou, Gu, & Chen, 2024).
Methods: A total of 40 pregnant women were included in the study (20 with ICP and 20 with uncomplicated pregnancies). Maternal serum samples were subjected to proteomic analysis using Waters Synapt G2-Si high-definition mass spectrometer equipped with a nano-electrospray ionization (nESI) source (Birhanu, 2023). After quality control, proteins with more than 30% missing data were excluded from the analysis. The remaining proteins were statistically compared between the two groups, and fold change values were calculated to identify up- or down-regulated proteins. Bioinformatic analyses were performed to evaluate the biological significance of these findings.
Results: Proteomic analysis identified the expression of 630 proteins in maternal serum samples, of which 11 proteins with >30% missing data were excluded. A total of 619 proteins were included in the comparative analysis, and 107 proteins were found to be significantly differentially expressed between the ICP and control groups. Among these, 11 proteins showed both statistical and biological significance. Specifically, 8 proteins were significantly up-regulated, whereas 3 proteins were down-regulated in ICP cases. These differences were further illustrated using volcano plots and heatmaps, which highlighted the distinct clustering of protein expression patterns between groups.
Conclusion and Discussion: Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy is associated with significant maternal and fetal complications, and current treatment options remain limited. This study demonstrates that women with ICP have a distinct serum proteomic signature, with several proteins showing differential regulation compared to uncomplicated pregnancies (Wang et al., 2024). These findings provide a foundation for the identification of novel biomarkers that may contribute to earlier diagnosis, risk stratification, and the development of new therapeutic strategies.
Keywords: Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP), pregnancy, proteomics, biomarkers, bioinformatics
Acknowledgements: This work was supported by Research Fund of the Inonu University. Project Number: TSG-2024-3666.