Maternal Serum Levels of Estriol, Prolactin, Human Placental Lactogen and Chorionic Gonadotrophin Related to Fetal Sex in Normal and Abnormal Pregnancies

Abstract

A total of 222 pregnant women had repeated hormone assays of prolactin, estriol, human chorionic gonadotrophin and placental lactogen between week 20 and delivery. The aim of this study was to investigate whether maternal serum levels of the above-mentioned hormones differed between normal and abnormal pregnancies, that is preterm, preterm small-for-date (SFD), SFD at-term and normal at-term deliveries, with special regard to fetal sex. The results of the present study indicated differences related to preterm deliveries and intrauterine growth retardation. This finding was reflected in the estriol levels when mothers of both boys and girls were included, suggesting a primary involvement of fetoplacental factors in these pathological pregnancies. However, when only mothers of girls were investigated, the development of growth retardation was mainly seen in maternal serum hPL differences, thus suggesting a placental involvement.

Low serum placental lactogen at term is associated with postnatal symptoms of depression and anxiety in women delivering female infants

“…Although some placental hormones show inherent sex differences, such as human chorionic gonadotropin which is higher when the fetus is female (Adibi et al, 2015), we did not find significant sex-differences in the level of hPL. Lower maternal serum levels of hPL have been reported in small for gestational age pregnancies, but only when the infant was female (Lagerström et al, 1990). Similarly, maternal smoking has been associated with lower maternal hPL in mothers carrying girls but not boys (Bremme et al, 1990).…”

Predictors of Steroid Hormone Concentrations in Early Pregnancy: Results from a Multi-Center Cohort

“…Importantly, hormone concentrations were measured using LC-MS/MS with FT evaluated using equilibrium dialysis. Of the similar studies discussed herein, only a small fraction have used LC-MS/MS technology (21), which is the gold standard for serum hormone measurement, while the remainder have used older and less sensitive immunoassay techniques (6,7,10,(12)(13)(14)(15)(16). This assay sensitivity is especially important for androgens, which are present in very low concentrations in women (23).…”

“…For example, although many believe that the endocrine environment during early pregnancy is arguably of greatest concern with respect to subsequent disease risk in the fetus (given the rapid cell differentiation, proliferation, and organogenesis that occurs during this period), timing of biospecimen collection for hormone measurement has ranged from early pregnancy through umbilical cord blood collection at delivery. The vast majority of these studies have relied upon immunoassays (including chemiluminescent-, electrochemiluminescent-, and radioimmunoassays) which are relatively cheap, easy, and quick to perform (6,(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16). However in immunoassay, there is potential for the antibodies to cross-react with multiple hormones due to non-specific binding of steroids to the antibody (for example both dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate [DHEAS] and testosterone) (17), as well as with synthetic steroids (18,19).…”

Case–control study of prolactin and placental lactogen in SGA pregnancies

“…Since the hypothesis was that low lactogenic hormone activity would be associated with SGA pregnancies, we also analyzed the data using a one-tail test. Previous work has suggested fetal sex-specific association of low hPL and reduced fetal growth ( Lagerstrom et al 1990 ), therefore, the data was also analyzed based on fetal sex. Each group was assessed for outliers using the ROUT outlier test.…”