Proteins in Blood Help Identify Women at Increased Risk of Developing Pre-eclampsia

Researchers have identified proteins in the blood that help in predicting whether a first time mother is prone to an increased risk of developing pre-eclampsia.

Nearly 5 percent of pregnant women are affected with the complex disorder called pre-eclampsia. It is characterized by high blood pressure and protein in the urine after 20 weeks of pregnancy. It develops anytime during the second half of the pregnancy. In woman with severe pre-eclampsia it causes seizures and infrequently death. The only cure for this condition is to deliver the baby that is a preterm delivery. Pre-eclampsia was formerly known as toxemia of pregnancy.

The symptoms for this disorder are presence of protein in urine and high blood pressure. But in the new study, the researchers from The University of Manchester and Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Trust have identified proteins in the blood that help in predicting whether a woman in her first pregnancy suffers an elevated risk of developing pre-eclampsia.

There is a higher risk of the recurrence of the disorder in women who have previously had pre-eclampsia. These women are kept under close monitoring during their pregnancy. But in first time mothers spotting vulnerability to the disease was difficult.

To proceed with the finding, the researchers worked on blood samples that were collected from women in their 15th week of pregnancy (before the onset of the clinical signs of the disorder) as a part of the international SCOPE study.

On analyzing the samples they identified the difference in the blood samples of those women who developed pre-eclampsia and those who did not.  Further, the three proteins identified were studied in a large number of pregnant women with the help of a technique that permitted the level of several proteins to be measured simultaneously. Out of the three, two proteins that were earlier not associated with the disorder now proved be to good predictors of the risk of the disease.

The two new markers identified are pregnancy specific glycoprotein 5 (PSG5) and pregnancy specific glycoprotein 9 (PSG9).

"We hope that these two new markers will be of benefit in the future for women at risk from pre-eclampsia to allow early intervention and/or closer monitoring," said Dr Jenny Myers, from the Institute of Human Development at The University of Manchester. "We also hope to understand the biology of the disease better by determining why these proteins are higher in women with pre-eclampsia and whether they have a role in the development of the placenta."

The study was published in the journal Molecular and Cellular Proteomics.