Serum Galectin-3 Levels Are Unlikely to Be a Useful Predictive Marker for Early-onset Preeclampsia Development

Galectin-3 (gal-3) is lectin which is presumed to interact with extracellular matrix proteins and cell surface glycoproteins in normal and pathophysiological conditions. The expression of gal-3 at the fetal-maternal interface partially overlaps that of gal-1, suggesting that an interplay between them might be important for hypertensive disorders in pregnancy like preeclampsia. The aim of our study was to test the hypothesis whether galectin-3 could be used as a predictive marker for early-onset preeclampsia development. 32 patients with early-onset preeclampsia were examined, mean age 28.8 ± 5.5; and 22 age matched normal pregnancies mean age 28.5 ± 6.0. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used for measuring serum galectin-3 levels. There were no significant differences between serum levels of galectin-3 in sera of preeclampsia patients compared to normal pregnant women – 14.1 ± 4.77 vs. 15.7 ± 5.95 ng/ml (p>0.05). Serum galectin-3 levels correlated with maternal age (r=0.33; p=0.03) and BMI (body mass index) (r=0.52; p=0.01). Our data suggest that determination of serum galectin-3 levels may not be a useful method for prediction of early-onset preeclampsia. Studies should be aimed to other categories of biomarkers.