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Longitudinal determination of serum placental protein 13 during development of preeclampsia
Berthold Huppertz1, Marei Sammar, Ilana Chefetz
1Institute of Cell Biology, Histology and Embryology, Centre of Molecular Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria. berthold.huppertz@meduni-graz.at
Objective:
To determine maternal serum placental protein 13 (PP13) in normal pregnancy and preeclampsia.
Methods:
A prospective, longitudinal study with 41 normal pregnant women, 18 cases with preterm delivery or cervix insufficiency and 4 with developing late-onset preeclampsia. Six hundred and sixty-six maternal blood samples were obtained every 2-4 weeks starting at 5-8 weeks gestation (10-12 samples/patient) and tested for serum PP13 by ELISA.
Results:
In normal pregnant women delivering at term, median maternal serum PP13 levels were growing from 166 to 202 pg/ml and 382 pg/ml in the first, second and third trimester, respectively. Preeclamptic women had significantly reduced PP13 levels in the first trimester (multiples of median of 0.14 at 7-8 weeks; p = 0.005 compared to normal). PP13 in the third trimester was significantly higher compared to normal at 35-36 weeks with PP13 multiples of median of 1.79.
Conclusion:
This preliminary study indicates that low levels of PP13 in early pregnancy identify at-risk pregnancies, whereas high levels precede the syndrome in late pregnancy and suggest syncytiotrophoblast necrosis.
