This could be explained by the finding that CO induces vasodilation by binding to the heme-protein guanylyl cyclase [67].
In the extravascular compartment, cellular heme oxygenase (HO) is the most essential heme degrading protein, converting heme to free iron, biliverdin and CO [26,27].
In line with previously published studies [13,14] the extravascular heme- and radical scavenger A1M was significantly increased in plasma of women with PE.
It was hypothesized that through the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), Hb induces oxidative damage to the placenta and a subsequent leakage over the blood-placental barrier [12].
A 4-fold increase of the HbF concentration was seen in the PE patients (p-value 0.01) as compared to the controls.
A negative correlation was found, i.e. an increased plasma cell-free HbF concentration was associated with a decreased plasma Hp concentration, when including all individuals, controls and women with PE (r = -0.335, p-value<0.0001, n = 145)(Fig 1A).
Haptoglobin (Hp) is perhaps the most well investigated Hb-clearing molecule. It binds cell-free Hb in plasma [20,21] and the resulting Hp-Hb complex is cleared from blood via binding to the macrophage receptor CD163 [22].
A statistically significant increase in the mean Hp-HbF concentration was observed for women with PE as compared to controls (p-value 0.018).
Correlation analysis using Pearson’s correlation coefficient showed statistically significant inverse correlation between Hpx and blood pressure, both systolic (r = -0.511, pvalue< 0.00001, n = 145) and diastolic (r = -0,520, p-value<0.00001, n = 145)(Fig 3).
Analysis of the intravascular heme-scavenger protein Hpx showed a statistically significant decrease in plasma Hpx concentration of women with PE (p-value<0.0001) as compared to the controls (Table 3).
Studies of sickle cell anemia patients have reported decreased levels of Hpx following hemolysis [68].
Soluble, shedded CD163, the macrophage receptor mediating elimination of the Hp-Hb complex, was analyzed in plasma [40–42]. The analysis showed a small but not statistically significant (p-value 0.37) increase in the PE group as compared to the controls (Table 3).
Analysis of the Hp concentration in plasma showed a statistically significant decrease in Hp concentration in plasma samples of women with PE as compared to controls (pvalue< 0.0001).
Furthermore, the plasmaand extravascular reductase and heme- and radical scavenger α1-microglobulin (A1M) binds and degrades free heme and can reduce metHb [28–30].
Analysis of plasma levels of the heme- and radical scavenger A1M showed a statistically significant increase of plasma A1M concentration in women with PE (p-value 0.035) as compared to controls (Table 3).
Free heme in blood is sequestered by hemopexin (Hpx) [23,24] and the Hpx-heme complex is cleared from the circulation by the hepatocyte receptor CD91 [25].
The classical findings that define PE are hypertension and proteinuria appearing after 20 weeks of gestation.
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If you find BEL Commons useful in your work, please consider citing: Hoyt, C. T., Domingo-Fernández, D., & Hofmann-Apitius, M. (2018). BEL Commons: an environment for exploration and analysis of networks encoded in Biological Expression Language. Database, 2018(3), 1–11.