IL‐17 Increased in the Third Trimester in Healthy Women with Term Labor

Citation Martínez‐García EA, Chávez‐Robles B, Sánchez‐Hernández PE, Nuñez‐Atahualpa L, Martín‐Máquez BT, Muñoz‐Gómez A, González‐López L, Gámez‐Nava JI, Salazar‐Páramo M, Dávalos‐Rodríguez I, Petri MH, Zuñiga‐Tamayo D, Vargas‐Ramírez R, Vázquez‐Del Mercado M. IL‐17 Increased in the third trimester in healthy women with term labor. Am J Reprod Immunol 2011; 65: 99–103 Introduction The function, peripheral blood expression, and physiologic importance of IL‐17 is not well established. Detection of IL‐17 in sera and plasma samples from patients with pre‐eclampsia has been reported with inconsistent results. To establish the l levels of the IL‐17 at peripheral level, we studied prospectively a cohort of 13 healthy pregnant women. Objective To evaluate the changes in serum levels of IL‐17 in healthy pregnant women in a prospective cohort. Material and Methods Thirteen healthy pregnant women were prospectively followed to evaluate serum levels of IL‐17. Each patient was evaluated at each trimester. IL‐17 levels were measured by ELISA. The statistical analysis was done using repeated measures anova and Bonferroni′s multiple comparison test. Results IL‐17 levels were significantly increased from first trimester with a mean of 14.61 up to 31.78 pg/mL at third trimester (P < 0.05), but when detectable, they were almost identical range in all trimesters. Conclusions We propose that IL‐17 levels in healthy women are present with very similar range levels during the whole pregnancy but the average is increased during the third trimester maybe as a part of the complex network of cytokines as a result of implantation, fetal development, and labor process itself.