Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between premature brain injury and multiple biomarkers in cord blood and amniotic fluid, identify potential biomarkers for early monitoring of premature brain injury.
Methods: One hundred and thirty cases of singleton premature infants with gestational age less than 34 weeks were evaluated. Based on brain imaging examination, all cases were divided into the brain injury group and the no brain injury group. Eleven biomarkers in cord blood and amniotic fluid were measured.
Results: Levels of interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-6, IL-8, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1), S100B, and activin A were higher in the brain injury group than those in the no brain injury group, in addition to S100B in amniotic fluid (p > .05), the differences were all statistically significant (p < .05). In the value of predicting brain injury, S100B had the highest sensitivity in cord blood, IL-1β had the highest sensitivity in amniotic fluid, and activin A owned the highest specificity both in cord blood and amniotic fluid. Levels of IL-4 and IL-17A were too low and had no predictive value to brain injury.
Conclusions: A variety of biomarkers in umbilical blood and amniotic fluid can predict preterm brain injury.
Keywords: Amniotic fluid; biomarkers; brain injury; cord blood; premature.