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ToolsThomas, Melinda M., Sulek, Karolina, McKenzie, Elizabeth J., Jones, Beatrix, Han, Ting Li, Villas-Boas, Silas G., Kenny, Louise C., McCowan, Lesley M.E. and Baker, Philip N. (2015) Metabolite profile of cervicovaginal fluids from early pregnancy is not predictive of spontaneous preterm birth. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 16 (11). pp. 27741-27748. ISSN 1661-6596
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract
In our study, we used a mass spectrometry-based metabolomic approach to search for biomarkers that may act as early indicators of spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB). Samples were selected as a nested case-control study from the Screening for Pregnancy Endpoints (SCOPE) biobank in Auckland, New Zealand. Cervicovaginal swabs were collected at 20 weeks from women who were originally assessed as being at low risk of sPTB. Samples were analysed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Despite the low amount of biomass (16-23 mg), 112 compounds were detected. Statistical analysis showed no significant correlations with sPTB. Comparison of reported infection and plasma inflammatory markers from early pregnancy showed two inflammatory markers were correlated with reported infection, but no correlation with any compounds in the metabolite profile was observed. We hypothesise that the lack of biomarkers of sPTB in the cervicovaginal fluid metabolome is simply because it lacks such markers in early pregnancy. We propose alternative biofluids be investigated for markers of sPTB. Our results lead us to call for greater scrutiny of previously published metabolomic data relating to biomarkers of sPTB in cervicovaginal fluids, as the use of small, high risk, or late pregnancy cohorts may identify metabolite biomarkers that are irrelevant for predicting risk in normal populations.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Publisher Copyright: © 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | biomarkers,cervicovaginal,metabolomics,spontaneous preterm birth,catalysis,molecular biology,spectroscopy,computer science applications,physical and theoretical chemistry,organic chemistry,inorganic chemistry ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1500/1503 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Metabolic Health |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 27 Feb 2026 12:30 |
| Last Modified: | 27 Feb 2026 12:30 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/102101 |
| DOI: | 10.3390/ijms161126052 |
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