The Expression of PDCD4 in Patients With Missed Abortion and Its Clinical Significance

Missed abortion is a special form of spontaneous abortion and its incidence shows a rising trend. Immunological factor is one of the most common reasons. Tumor suppressor gene programmed cell death 4 (PDCD4) also participates in some immune-mediated inflammation, such as atherosclerosis, and so on, but the role of PDCD4 in missed abortion remains unclear. Here, the expression of PDCD4 was detected in decidual and chorionic tissues, as well as peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with missed abortion and healthy controls using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), Western blot, and immunohistochemistry. The expression of cytokines was also detected in decidual tissues using qRT-PCR. The levels of serum estradiol and progesterone were measured by radioimmunoassay. In addition, the correlations of PDCD4 expression with cytokines and hormones were analyzed. The results demonstrated that PDCD4 expression was reduced in decidual tissues from the missed abortion group compared with the control group. The levels of tumor necrosis factor were significantly higher in decidual tissues of missed abortion patients than those in normal controls. We also found serum estradiol and progesterone levels were significantly lower in the missed abortion group than those in the control group, and serum progesterone level was inversely related to PDCD4 messenger RNA level. The data suggested that reduced PDCD4 expression may be involved in the occurrence of missed abortion. This may facilitate the potential development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for the treatment of missed abortion.