Table II. Overview of the study population and immunoassays for the different inflammatory markers.
| Inflammatory marker | Study population | Immunoassay | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total patients | Group 1 PTB |
Group 2 GA matched controls |
Group 3 AT in labour |
Group 4 AT not in labour |
|||
| sTREM-1 | 176 | 52 | 52 | 40 | 32 | ELISA | R&D systems, Minneapolis, MN |
| MMP-9 | 166 | 47 | 47 | 40 | 32 | Luminex | Human Matrix Metalloproteinases 3-Plex Panel* Invitrogen, Inc. Carlsbad, CA |
| TIMP-1 to -4 | 166 | 47 | 47 | 40 | 32 | Luminex | Human TIMP Multiplex Kit R&D systems, Minneapolis, MN |
| MMP-3 | 116 | 34 | 34 | 27 | 21 | Luminex | Human Matrix Metalloproteinases 3-Plex Panel Invitrogen, Inc. Carlsbad, CA |
| Multiplex | 144 | 39 | 39 | 34 | 32 | Luminex | Human Cytokine 30-plex Panel** Invitrogen, Inc. Carlsbad, CA |
*The 3-plex was validated for serum by performing spike and recovery and linearity-of-dilution experiments. MMP-13 concentrations in maternal serum were undetectable in all samples using this method. At a twofold dilution of serum, concentrations were below the detection limit and recovery fell outside the range 70-130%.
** The panel consisted of epidermal growth factor (EGF), eotaxin, basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-basic), granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), interferon alpha (IFN-α), interferon gamma (IFN-γ), interleukin (IL) receptor antagonist (IL-1RA), IL-1β, IL-2, soluble IL-2 receptor (sIL2R), IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-7, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12 (p40/p70), IL-13, IL-15, IL-17, inducible protein-10 (IP-10), monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1, monokine induced by gamma interferon (MIG), macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1α, MIP-1β, Regulated on Activation, Normal T-cell Expressed and Secreted (RANTES), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).