Fig. 6

Hsa_circ_0036877 can serve as a potential novel blood biomarker for early PE. a Expression of hsa_circ_0036877 in blood samples from 110 matched normal participants and 34 patients with PE at 24 weeks of gestation was detected by qRT-PCR. The expression of hsa_circ_0036877 in blood samples of PE (ΔCt mean ± s.e.m., 1.778 ± 0.6888) diagnosed after gestation based on ACOG was significantly higher than in normal controls (ΔCt mean ± s.e.m., 6.651 ± 0.2192). Higher ΔCt value indicated lower expression. Bars indicate means ± s.e.m. from independent experiments. ***p < 0.0001. b Compared with matched normal controls, significantly increased apoptosis of syncytial trophoblasts was found in the PE placenta. Right panel showed that the apoptosis index in normal and PE placenta was statisticed. Scale bar, 50 μm. **p < 0.001 c ROC curves showed that hsa_circ_0036877 can serve as a potential blood biomarker for prediction of PE. AUC, 0.846 (95% CI 0.754–0.938); sensitivity and specificity, 85.3 and 72.7%, respectively. The cutoff value was 5.13 (ΔCt value) (the optimal cutoff point was determined at the maximum of Youden index (YI)). The PPV of an ΔCt value of 5.13 or lower for a diagnosis of preeclampsia was 49.1%. An ΔCt value above 5.13 had a high NPV of 94.1%