You, Young-Ah Hwang, Soo-Yeon Kim, Soo-Min Park, Seojeong Lee, Ga-In Park, Sunwha Ansari, AbuZar Lee, Jeongae Kwon, Youngjoo Kim, Young-Ju 2024-01-19T14:30:36Z 2024-01-19T14:30:36Z 2021-10-21 2021-07 2218-1989 https://pubs.kist.re.kr/handle/201004/116801 Metabolites reflect the biochemical dynamics for the maintenance of pregnancy and parturition. UPLC-Q/TOF-MS and LC-MS/MS metabolomics were performed to identify and validate the plasma metabolomic signatures of preterm birth (PTB). We recruited pregnant women between 16 and 40 weeks 5 days gestational age at Ewha Womans Mokdong Hospital for a nested case-control study. In untargeted UPLC-Q/TOF-MS, score plots of partial least-squares discriminant analysis clearly separated the PTB group from the term birth (TB, n = 10; PTB, n = 11). Fifteen metabolites were significantly different between the two groups, as indicated by a variable importance in projection >1 and p < 0.05. Metabolic pathways involving retinol, linoleic acid, d-arginine, and d-ornithine were associated with PTB. Verification by LC-MS/MS focused on retinol metabolism (TB, n = 39; PTB, n = 20). Retinol levels were significantly reduced in PTB compared to TB, while retinal palmitate, all-trans-retinal, and 13-cis-retinoic acid ((13)cis-RA) significantly increased (p < 0.05). Retinol-binding protein levels were also elevated in PTB. Additionally, all-trans-retinal (AUC 0.808, 95% CI: 0.683-0.933) and (13)cis-RA (AUC 0.826, 95% CI: 0.723-0.930) showed improved predictions for PTB-related retinol metabolites. This study suggests that retinoid metabolism improves the accuracy of PTB predictions and plays an important role in maintaining pregnancy and inducing early parturition. English MDPI PREMATURE RUPTURE BINDING-PROTEIN PREGNANCY LABOR PREDICTION DELIVERY ACID Identification of Indicators for Preterm Birth Using Retinoid Metabolites Article 10.3390/metabo11070443 1 METABOLITES, v.11, no.7 METABOLITES 11 7 scie scopus 000676283200001 2-s2.0-85110823405 Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Article PREMATURE RUPTURE BINDING-PROTEIN PREGNANCY LABOR PREDICTION DELIVERY ACID preterm birth metabolomic analysis retinoid metabolism parturition 13-cis-retinoic acid