Pathophysiology of Preeclampsia: The Role of Adiposity and Serum Adipokines

Abstract

The goal of this study was to determine serum adiponectin, leptin, resistin, visfatin, and lipids in pregnant women during the first trimester and to examine the link between these biochemical markers and preeclampsia (PE). Changes in the levels of these adipokines occur in PE, hence this study looked into the possibility of employing these biomarkers to predict the disease. This study compared first-trimester serum biochemical and anthropometric markers in pregnant women with PE to the controls. After 20 weeks of pregnancy, blood pressure and urine protein were measured, and a PE diagnosis was made according to American Heart Association criteria. Generally, there were significant differences (p < 0.05) in the biochemical markers between the PEs and the controls. Even after correcting for body mass index (BMI) and family history of hypertension, analyses of area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) for the adipokines revealed their capacity to reliably predict PE. After adjusting for BMI, it emerged that adiponectin, leptin, resistin, and visfatin were significant predictors of PE, with resistin being the best predictor. After controlling for BMI, age, parity, and family history of diabetes and preeclampsia, adiponectin was the greatest predictor.

Adipsin as a marker of preeclampsia in a Ghanaian community

“…There are varied reports on the relationship between lipids and PE. While some researchers reported no signi cant relationship between rst trimester lipids and PE [10] others reported signi cant difference in the major lipid fractions between those with normal pregnancies and those with PE [11], [12]. Despite the fact that a strong correlation between elevated adipsin and PE has been demonstrated in a recent study which also revealed the promising value of this protein as a diagnostic tool for PE [13] to date, no relationship between adipsin and PE has been reported among pregnant women in a Ghanaian community.…”