Investigation of visin like protein-1 levels in patients of preeclampsia

One of the most complex complications of pregnancy, preeclampsia is considered a pregnancy-specific disorder caused by the placenta and treated only by delivery. However, preeclampsia is a multisystemic disease with various clinical manifestations, and this condition may be present even in the absence of hypertension and proteinuria. It is estimated that preeclampsia complicates 2-8% of pregnancies worldwide. In Turkey, although its frequency varies according to different sources; In this systematic review, including the World Health Organization, the incidence of preeclampsia was found to be 15.6%, while the incidence of eclampsia was found to be 1.2%. Overall, 10% to 15% of direct maternal deaths are associated with preeclampsia and eclampsia. Where maternal mortality are high, most deaths are attributable to eclampsia rather than preeclampsia. Preeclampsia is a precursor for up to 12% of infants born small by gestational age and one-fifth of preterm infants. Perinatal mortality is high following preeclampsia and even higher following eclampsia. The onset and clinical course of the disease are unpredictable. Therefore, powerful tools are needed in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. Visinin like protein-1 (vilip-1), a member of the neuronal calcium sensor protein family, plays an important role in the regulation of cell signaling during cell development and differentiation. VILIP-1 is a low molecular weight (approximately 22 kDa) cytoplasmic protein composed of 191 amnioacids. This kind of protein acts on calcium-dependet signal transduction in neurons. It has been found that Vilip-1 is also expressed in many peripheral tissues in humans and rats. It is known that Vilip-1 has number of roles not only in the central nervous system, but also in other peripheral tissues. Vilip-1 regulates intracellular cyclic nucleotide levels by interacting with adenylate cyclase and guanylate cyclase. One of the cyclic nucleotides, cAMP is effective in cell proliferation, differentiation and cell migration. It has been evinced that these proteins have a role in the pathophysiological function of a range of diseases ranging from hypertension, diabetic nephropathy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, stroke, Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. The molecular and cellular mechanisms of some of these pathophysiological roles have just begun to be elucidated. VSNLs, a member of neuronal calcium (Ca+2) sensor proteins (NCSP), can also regulate gene expression. Through these global mechanisms, VSNLs have been found to be effective on cell death, migration and differentiation under physiological and pathological conditions, and it is also predicted that they may contribute to trophoblastic activity processes. It should be emphasized that NCS proteins are not a nervous system-specific gene family, although they were previously thought so. Its expression has been observed in most of the other organs. In peripheral tissues, VILIP-1 sequences were show up various tissues. It is also shown to be present in tissues such as prostate, kidney, lung, pancreas, liver, ovaries, testis, placenta, heart, adrenal gland, stomach and colon. In VILIP-3; It has been detected in kidney, spleen and testicles, and in the hematopoietic system and intestinal cells. Overexpression of Vilip-1 in neuroblastoma, upregulate the expression of trkB an anoikis inhibitör, down-regulates the expression of intracellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), major histocompatibility complex class 1 (MHC-1) and cell adhesion molecules CD44 and CD44v6. Therefore, VILIP-1 regulates cell migration. Consequently, it affects the invasion properties of cells, mainly trophoblastic and vascular cells. In this way, it increases cell invasion and metastasis. In this study, it was aimed to measure visinin like protein 1 levels in pregnant women diagnosed with preeclampsia without severe features, preeclampsia with severe features and in normotensive healthy pregnant women, and to investigate the relationship between the levels of the parameter and these diseases. Ninety pregnant women who applied to Elazig Fırat University, Fırat University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology between April 2022 and November 2022 were included in this study. The study was started after the approval of the Hospital Ethics Committee. Pregnant women were divided into healthy pregnants (Group 1, n = 30), preeclampsia pregnants (Group 2, n = 30) and severe preeclampsia pregnants (Group 3, n = 30). Obstetric and sociodemographic characteristics of the cases were recorded. Blood samples were taken from the patients to evaluate routine laboratory parameters and Visini like protein-1 levels. SPSS 22.0 program was used in the statistical analysis of the obtained data. Data were expressed as mean ± SD (mean±standard deviation). The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to test the normal distribution of the data, the Levene test to test the homogeneity of group variances, and the Kruskall-Wallis analysis of variance to determine the significance of the differences between groups. For values found to be significantly different (p < 0.05), groups were compared in pairs using the Mann-Whitney U (MWU) test. Bonferroni correction was made to avoid the increase in significance. The p < 0.017 value was accepted as significant. Visinin like protein-1 levels were 10.23±7.98 ng/ml in Group 1, 7.91±4.97 ng/ml in Group 2, 24.75±18.27 ng/ml in Group 3 When the groups were compared, it was observed that the visinin-like protein-1 levels were significantly different in Group 3 compared to Group 1 and Group 2 (p < 0.017, MWU test). Visinin like protein-1 levels were found to be significantly higher in preeclampsia with severe features compared to the control and preeclampsia groups. This study shows that visinin like protein-1 may play a role in the pathophysiology of preeclampsia. In the light of these data, the use of visinin like protein-1 in the diagnosis and treatment of severe preeclampsia can be considered. Keywords: Visinin like protein 1, preeclampsia, pregnancy, cellular migration and invasion