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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Obstetrics and Gynecology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1540257
This article is part of the Research Topic Neuroplacentology: From "Start-up" to "Start-map" View all articles
Association Between Aquaporin 3 and Transforming Growth Factor-Beta 1 Levels in Decidual Tissue and Serum of Patients with Missed Abortion
Provisionally accepted- Affiliated Hospital of North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan, China
Objective: To investigate the expression of aquaporin 3 (AQP3) and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) in the decidual tissue and serum of patients with missed abortion (MA) and explore their clinical significance, evaluating their potential as diagnostic biomarkers for MA.Methods: A total of 40 MA patients (case group) and 40 induced abortion (IA) patients (control group) were included. Immunohistochemistry (IHC), Western blot (WB), and reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) were used to detect the protein and mRNA expression of AQP3 and TGF-β1 in decidual tissue. Serum levels of AQP3 and TGF-β1 were measured by ELISA. The diagnostic efficacy was assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.The protein expression of AQP3 and TGF-β1 in the decidual tissue of the MA group was significantly higher than that of the IA group, with a 2.3-fold and 2.5-fold increase, respectively (P < 0.01), and their mRNA expression was also significantly upregulated (P < 0.01). Serum levels of AQP3 and TGF-β1 increased by 2.3-fold and 3.3-fold, respectively (P < 0.01). ROC analysis demonstrated that serum AQP3 (AUC = 0.887) and TGF-β1 (AUC = 0.949) exhibited high diagnostic accuracy for MA, with the combined detection achieving an AUC of 0.976, sensitivity of 92.5%, and specificity of 97.5%.: AQP3 and TGF-β1 are significantly overexpressed in the decidual tissue and serum of MA patients and may play a role in the pathogenesis of MA by regulating trophoblast function. The combined detection of these two biomarkers holds promise as potential diagnostic tools for MA, offering new directions for early clinical management.
Keywords: Missed abortion, Induced abortion, Decidual tissue, TGF- beta 1, AQP3
Received: 05 Dec 2024; Accepted: 07 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yan, Jinling, Jianxin, Yingmo, Yanjuan and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Chen Yan, Affiliated Hospital of North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan, China
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