Source: Intensive Care Medicine  |  Posted 8 years ago

Increased placental expression of inhibin subunit mRNAs is partly responsible for increased serum activin A and inhibin A levels in pre-eclampsia.

Pre-eclampsia and gestational hypertension are the most important gestational diseases that restrict foetal growth. From early to term pregnancy, the dimeric glycoproteins activin A (beta A beta A) and inhibin A (alpha beta A) circulate in higher amounts in the maternal circulation of women with these conditions.

Noting that there are no data on patients with pre-eclampsia and superimposed foetal growth restriction, researchers at the University of Siena, Italy, used two-site immunoassays to evaluate serum activin A and inhibin A levels in serum samples collected from 42 healthy normotensive pregnant controls and 40 women who had pre-eclampsia. Nineteen of the pre-eclampsic women had superimposed foetal growth restriction and 21 did not.

The researchers also used quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction to investigate the changes of alpha and beta A-subunit mRNA expression in placentas collected from seven healthy controls and 12 pre-eclamptic pregnancies - six with superimposed foetal growth restriction and six without it.

The researchers found that activin A and inhibin A serum levels were significantly higher in pre-eclampsia. The presence of foetal growth restriction did not significantly modify these concentrations.

Likewise, inhibin-subunit mRNA levels in placentas from pre-eclampsia were significantly higher than in controls. Foetal growth restriction did not significantly affect that expression.