ABSTRACT

        Background and Objective: Nutritional factors and activation of inflammatory pathways are thought to be involved in pathogenesis of preeclampsia in pregnant women. The present study aimed to compare the serum levels of vitamin D and interleukin-6 in healthy pregnant women with those of preeclampsia ones.

        Methods: This case-control study was performed on 120 healthy pregnant women and 120 women with preeclampsia referred to Imam Reza Hospital in Kermanshah. The serum levels of vitamin D and IL-6 were measured by ELISA method. The data was analyzed by SPSS software (version 20) using independent t-test, the P-value of <0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

        Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the mean level of vitamin D in the patients (37.64 ± 29.50 ng/ml) and the controls (40.06 ± 33.20 ng/ml). the serum level of IL-6 in patients with preeclampsia (21.71 ± 32.24 pg/ml) was significantly higher compared to that of  control group (15.04 ± 28.6 pg/ml) (P <0.001).

       Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, inflammatory factors and cytokines such as IL-6 can be considered as risk factor for preeclampsia. However, more studies with larger sample sizes are required to further evaluate the association of vitamin D levels and risk of preeclampsia.

           Keywords: Pregnancy, Pre-Eclampsia, Vitamin D, Interleukin-6.