A team of researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center reported that high levels of two proteins in the blood of pregnant women seem to indicate the subsequent development of preeclampsia.

The researches presented strong evidence that an imbalance of these two proteins produced by the placenta is responsible for the symptoms of preeclampsia:

1) soluble endoglin

It begins accumulating in the blood of pregnant women 2 to 3 months before they develop preeclampsia.

In women who developed preterm preeclampsia, levels of soluble endoglin began to rise in the 17th to the 20th week of pregnancy.

In women who developed preeclampsia at full term, soluble endoglin levels rose at the 25th to the 28th week of pregnancy.

Similarly, soluble endoglin levels also rose in the 33rd through the 36th week of pregnancy for women who later developed gestational hypertension--hypertension without protein in the urine.

Levels rose still further after the onset of gestational hypertension.

2) soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 (sFlt1)

The increase in sFlt1 was accompanied by reduced levels of a substance, placental growth factor (PlGF).

Both women with term preeclampsia and women with gestational hypertension had simultaneous rise in soluble endoglin, and an increase in the ratio of sFlt1 to PlGF (high levels of sFlt1 and low levels of PlGF.)

Abnormally high levels of these proteins deprive the blood vessels of substances needed to keep the lining of the blood vessels healthy, thereby resulting to sickening and death of these linings further resulting to increased blood pressure and the blood vessels leach protein into the tissues and urine.

These findings appearing in the September 7 issue of New England Journal of Medicine is an important step in finding a cure for preeclampsia, a life-threatening pregnancy complication.

In addition, this could also be a basis in predicting whether or not a (pregnant) woman will develop the disorder.

Read more details from the NIH/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

[News and Photo Source: NIH/NICDHD]