Parent Genes’ Linked To  Pre-eclampsia

What Is Pre-eclampsia?

Pre-eclampsia is caused by a defect in the placenta supplying oxygen and nutrients to the developing baby. Pre-eclampsia usually happens during the end of the pregnancy and can cause blood pressure and kidney complications

Pre-eclampsia can be fatal to mother and baby in extreme situations

How Common Is Pre-eclampsia?

Up to ten per cent of pregnant women can get pre-eclampsia. One in fifty women experience a severe form. Pre-eclampsia is responsible for the deaths of around five women and as many as six hundred babies every year.

How Is Pre-eclampsia Linked To Partents’ Genes?

Genes from both the mother and father can pre-eclampsia a study from  the University of Bergen in Norway has found. The study first published in the British Medical Journal,  studied 238,000 women and 158,000 men and their pregnancies.

They found that women had a 2.2 increased risk of a pre-eclamptic pregnancy if their mother suffered from the condition during their pregnancies. For men the risk was increased by 1.5.

Other influences on whether a pregnancy might be pre-eclamptic or not include:

• Age of the mother (over 40)
• Obesity of the mother
• Family medical history
• Stress
• First time pregnancy

The risk through affected mothers is higher because they carry their mother's susceptibility genes  as well as their own independent risk factors to their developing baby.

The risk from affected fathers is lower because fathers transmit only foetal risk genes.

Has This Study Prompted Further Research Into Pre-eclampsia?

The University of Edinburgh are to conduct a study into the causes of pre-eclampsia. The project has £120,000 of funding and will draw on the research of cardiologists, obstetrics and dermatology over the next two years.