Serum leptin and ghrelin concentrations of maternal serum, arterial and venous cord blood in healthy and preeclamptic pregnant women

Preeclampsia, a common complication of pregnancy, is associated with alteration in the concentration of leptin in maternal blood. The action of leptin is antagonistic to that of ghrelin. Here, we compared the levels of leptin and ghrelin in maternal serum and in arterial and venous cord blood between healthy pregnant women and those suffering from mild and severe preeclampsia. The levels of leptin in maternal and newborn’s blood were elevated in both mild and severe preeclamptic patients (p<0.05). Moreover, serum ghrelin levels were negatively correlated with blood pressure and leptin/ghrelin ratio was decreased in preeclampsia (p<0.05). We concluded that increased production of ghrelin may represent a compensatory hypotensive mechanism in preeclamptic women.ResumenLa preclampsia, una complicación del embarazo, se asocia a alteración de la concentración de leptina en la sangre materna. La acción de la leptina es antagonista de la de la ghrelina. En el presente trabajo, se comparan los niveles de ambas hormonas en suero materno y en sangre arterial y venosa del cordón umbilical en embarazadas normales y en las que sufren preeclampsia leve y severa. Los resultados muestran elevación significativa del nivel de leptina en la sangre materna y fetal en caso de preclampsia, leve y severa. Además, los niveles sérios de ghrelina están negativamente correlacionados con la presión arterial y la relación leptina/ghrelina disminuye significativamente en caso de preclampsia. Es posible que la producción incrementada de ghrelina represente un mecanismo compensatorio hipotensor en mujeres con preeclampsia.

[1]  M. Iida,et al.  Ghrelin Acts at the Nucleus of the Solitary Tract to Decrease Arterial Pressure in Rats , 2004, Hypertension.

[2]  D. N. Misra,et al.  Maternal plasma leptin is increased in preeclampsia and positively correlates with fetal cord concentration. , 1999, American journal of obstetrics and gynecology.

[3]  P. Leung,et al.  Ghrelin, a novel placental-derived hormone. , 2001 .

[4]  J. Calbet,et al.  Intracellular signaling pathways activated by leptin and its modulation by exercise (II) , 2010 .

[5]  F. Casanueva,et al.  Serum leptin levels in women throughout pregnancy and the postpartum period and in women suffering spontaneous abortion , 1999, Clinical endocrinology.

[6]  Hikmet Geçkil,et al.  Biological rhythm of saliva ghrelin in humans , 2006 .

[7]  H. Singh,et al.  Raised Leptin Concentrations in Feto-Placental Tissues from Women with Preeclampsia , 2005, Hypertension in pregnancy.

[8]  S. Aydin,et al.  Effects of regular physical exercise on serum leptin and androgen concentrations in young women , 2005 .

[9]  K. Nakao,et al.  Ghrelin strongly stimulates growth hormone release in humans. , 2000, The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism.

[10]  Diagnosis and management of preeclampsia and eclampsia , 2002 .

[11]  M. Tschöp,et al.  Biological, physiological, pathophysiological, and pharmacological aspects of ghrelin. , 2004, Endocrine reviews.

[12]  G. Rice,et al.  Release and regulation of leptin, resistin and adiponectin from human placenta, fetal membranes, and maternal adipose tissue and skeletal muscle from normal and gestational diabetes mellitus-complicated pregnancies. , 2005, The Journal of endocrinology.

[13]  M. Yaman,et al.  Comparison of serum copper, zinc, calcium, and magnesium levels in preeclamptic and healthy pregnant women , 2003, Biological Trace Element Research.

[14]  James J. Walker,et al.  Pre-eclampsia , 2000, The Lancet.

[15]  M. Bednarek,et al.  Structure-function studies on the new growth hormone-releasing peptide, ghrelin: minimal sequence of ghrelin necessary for activation of growth hormone secretagogue receptor 1a. , 2000, Journal of medicinal chemistry.

[16]  M. Nakazato,et al.  Ghrelin is a growth-hormone-releasing acylated peptide from stomach , 1999, Nature.

[17]  E. Caylak,et al.  A comparison of leptin and ghrelin levels in plasma and saliva of young healthy subjects , 2005, Peptides.

[18]  M. Rauh,et al.  Identification of ghrelin in human saliva: production by the salivary glands and potential role in proliferation of oral keratinocytes. , 2005, Clinical chemistry.

[19]  C. Birmingham,et al.  Immunoreactive Ghrelin in Human Cord Blood: Relation to Anthropometry, Leptin, and Growth Hormone , 2002, Journal of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition.

[20]  S. Blackwell,et al.  The levels of leptin, adiponectin, and resistin in normal weight, overweight, and obese pregnant women with and without preeclampsia. , 2005, American journal of obstetrics and gynecology.

[21]  G. Remuzzi,et al.  Prevention and treatment of pregnancy-associated hypertension: what have we learned in the last 10 years? , 1991, American journal of kidney diseases : the official journal of the National Kidney Foundation.

[22]  S. Aydin,et al.  Changes of serum paraoxonase (an HDL-cholesterol-associated lipophilic antioxidant) and arylesterase activities in severe preeclamptic women. , 2004, European journal of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology.

[23]  T. Kawarabayashi,et al.  Alteration of Plasma Ghrelin Levels Associated With the Blood Pressure in Pregnancy , 2002, Hypertension.

[24]  P. Mark,et al.  Directional secretion and transport of leptin and expression of leptin receptor isoforms in human placental BeWo cells , 2005, Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology.

[25]  E. Domali,et al.  Leptin in pregnancy , 2002, The journal of maternal-fetal & neonatal medicine : the official journal of the European Association of Perinatal Medicine, the Federation of Asia and Oceania Perinatal Societies, the International Society of Perinatal Obstetricians.

[26]  F. Finnerty.  Hypertension in Pregnancy , 1977, Angiology.

[27]  W. Shimizu,et al.  Hemodynamic, renal, and hormonal effects of ghrelin infusion in patients with chronic heart failure. , 2001, The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism.

[28]  K. Kangawa,et al.  Ghrelin: structure and function. , 2005, Physiological reviews.

[29]  D. Luthy,et al.  Pre-eclampsia disrupts the normal relationship between serum leptin concentrations and adiposity in pregnant women. , 1999, Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology.

[30]  S. Takeda,et al.  Ghrelin Directly Regulates Bone Formation , 2004, Journal of bone and mineral research : the official journal of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

[31]  J. Dötsch,et al.  Differential regulation of leptin synthesis in rats during short-term hypoxia and short-term carbon monoxide inhalation. , 2005, Endocrinology.

[32]  E. Seely,et al.  Preeclampsia -- searching for the cause. , 2004, The New England journal of medicine.

[33]  Kojima.  Structure and function , 2005 .

[34]  B. Hartmann,et al.  Decreased Maternal Serum Leptin in Pregnancies Complicated by Preeclampsia , 2001, The Journal of the Society for Gynecologic Investigation: JSGI.

[35]  R. Coya,et al.  Progesterone and human placental lactogen inhibit leptin secretion on cultured trophoblast cells from human placentas at term , 2005, Gynecological endocrinology : the official journal of the International Society of Gynecological Endocrinology.

[36]  C. Hubel,et al.  Oxidative Stress in the Pathogenesis of Preeclampsia (44447) , 1999, Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine.

[37]  A. Mark,et al.  Leptin Acts in the Central Nervous System to Produce Dose-Dependent Changes in Arterial Pressure , 2001, Hypertension.