Genetic Errors Linked To Life-Threatening Pregnancy Disorder

Reported March 28, 2011

(Ivanhoe Newswire)-- Women who suffer from a condition called preeclampsia during pregnancy may be able to receive treatment for it in the future, thanks to new research that establishes a link between preeclampsia and autoimmune diseases.

Preeclampsia accounts for 15 percent of all preterm births, and usually develops after the twentieth week of pregnancy. The result of a breakdown of the placenta, which delivers oxygen and nutrients to the baby, preeclampsia causes high blood pressure, headaches and swelling of the mother's hands and face. The only treatment for preeclampsia is to induce labor, and if it develops too early in the pregnancy, this can be fatal to the baby. When not treated, preeclampsia can lead to seizures, kidney and liver damage, strokes and breathing problems, threatening the life of both mother and child.

The new study, from researchers at Washington University, Weill Cornell Medical College, the University of Utah at Salt Lake City, Newcastle University in the United Kingdom and the Georges-Pompidou Hospital of Paris, discovered a potential link between genetic mutations in women with autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, and genetic mutations in women who suffered from preeclampsia. Because of this link, the researchers suspect cases of preeclampsia may be triggered by problems with the immune system.

In the study, researchers studied 250 pregnant women with lupus or another autoimmune disease, antiphospholipid antibody syndrome. Out of the 250 women, forty suffered from preeclampsia: thirty developed it during the study, and ten had suffered from preeclampsia during previous pregnancies.

Scientists then looked at three genes involved in the body's immune response to injury and infection. Out of the forty women who suffered from both preeclampsia and an autoimmune disease, seven had mutations in at least one of the three genes. Scientists also studied other women who had preeclampsia but no autoimmune disease. They found the same genetic mutations in five out of 59 women.

The senior author of the study, John P. Atkinson, MD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis was quoted as saying, "We're going to need to confirm these links in a larger study, but if they are validated it may be possible to develop better ways to identify and treat women at risk."

One of those "better ways" may already be in the pipeline: the scientists chose the three genes to study due to a link to atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome: a disorder that triggers an out-of-control immune response. There is a drug treatment for atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome currently in clinical trials. If further research confirms the links between autoimmune diseases and preeclampsia, scientists may be able to alter the drug to treat preeclampsia in at-risk mothers.

SOURCE: PLoS: Medicine, published March 22, 2011