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conferenceseries
.com
Volume 6
Journal of Infectious Diseases & Therapy
ISSN: 2332-0877
Infection Prevention 2018
December 06-07, 2018
December 06-07, 2018 | Valencia, Spain
14
th
World Congress on
Infection Prevention and Control
The role if follistatin in HIV-associated pre-eclampsia
Siphesihle Mdlalose
1
, Jagedisa Moodley
2
and
Thajasvarie Naicker
1
1
Department of Optics and Imaging, College of Health Sciences, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.
2
Women’s Health and HIV Studies, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Nelson Mandela School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, University
of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa
K
waZulu-Natal has a high burden of HIV infection and high blood pressure, specifically pre-eclampsia (PE) in pregnancy.
Follistatin (FS) is an extracellular glycoprotein antagonist of the ligand receptor, Activin-A, involved in PE pathogenesis.
In light of the high maternal mortality and morbidity in SA, we investigated the expression of FS in the duality of HIV-
associated PE. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the role of FS in HIV-associated PE using the Bioplex Multiplex
Immunoassay. The methodology used -serum samples of normotensive and pre-eclamptic women stratified by HIV status
were collected from a large regional hospital in Durban, and their FS expression was analysed using the Bio-Plex® Pro™ Human
Cancer Biomarker Panel 1. Our results revealed that irrespective of HIV status, FS expression was significantly reduced in
pre-eclamptic compared to normotensive pregnancies (2354±353.6 vs 649.5±116.8; p<0.001). However, FS expression did not
differ between HIV +ve vs HIV –ve groups (1727±291.2 vs 1305±306.7; p=0.13)- regardless of pregnancy type. Furthermore,
we detected significant FS expression across all study groups (p<0.05). In conclusion, this study demonstrates a downregulation
of FS expression in PE, possibly due to oxidative stress and its immunoregulatory role in the hyperinflammatory milieu of PE.
Moreover, the fact that FS did not vary by HIV status may be attributed to the effects of HAART regimen adopted in SA. It is
also plausible to assume that the upregulation of FS expression (albeit non-significant) in HIV +ve patients, arises as a result
of the immune response in controlling viral infection. Our novel findings suggest that FS may have a potential predicator test
value early in pregnancy, hence work on this is ongoing.
sphemdlalose0@gmail.comJ Infect Dis Ther 2018, Volume 6
DOI: 10.4172/2332-0877-C6-054