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Clues to pre-eclampsia cause

Scientists believe they are closer to understanding why pre-eclampsia occurs.

Dr Ashley Moffett and colleagues at Cambridge University hope that their latest research might help doctors develop a test to screen for the potentially life-threatening condition.

Pre-eclampsia causes a woman's blood pressure to rise sharply, putting both mother and baby at risk.

Despite being around for more than 150 years, docotrs still know very little about the causes of the condition. There may be an inherited factor as women whose mothers or sisters have had the condition are more at risk of developing it themselves.

the researchers studied 200 mothers who developed pre-eclampsia with 201 who had normal pregnancies.

In normal pregnancy, cells in the placenta make sure enough nutrients pass from the mother to the unborn baby by setting up a good blood supply.

This happens when trophoblasts, cells from the baby, communicate through a chemical reaction with natural killer cells from the mother. This process, controlled by genes, allows the mother to set up the blood vessels in the placenta which are used to feed the baby.

In pre-eclampsia the blood supply is somehow compromised and the scientists found that the women with the condition had different genes controlling the chemical reaction.

They told the Journal of Experimental Medicine that inherited chemical signals between the cells of mother and baby might be to blame.

Dr Moffett said, "We are only speculating what might happen. Miles more research is needed.

"But this is the first hint that certain gene combinations between the mother and the baby will make some women at risk."

Mike Rich, chief executive of Action on Pre-Eclampsia said, "If it becomes possible to 'read' a genetic code that could identify a woman at greater risk of pre-eclampsia then it would be possible to provide that woman with the extra care and monitoring that is more likely to lead to a positive pregnancy outcome.

"As there is no known cure for pre-eclampsia apart from the delivery of the baby, the development of a test which could identify those women more at risk would have a significant effect on the management of pre-eclampsia."

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