Maternal nerve growth factor levels during pregnancy in women with preeclampsia: A longitudinal study

• Maternal NGF levels in women with preeclampsia were comparable to NC women at all time points.
• Lower maternal NGF levels and higher cord NGF levels were found in women with PE delivering female babies as compared to control women delivering female babies.
• Cord NGF levels were higher in women with preeclampsia delivering at term as compared to NC women.
• Maternal NGF levels at T1 were negatively associated with diastolic BP in women with preeclampsia.
• Cord NGF levels were positively correlated with baby head and chest circumference in whole cohort.

Preeclampsia (PE) is characterized by hypertension and proteinuria. Improper development of the placenta due to altered angiogenesis is the main culprit in PE. Nerve growth factor (NGF) is an angiogenic factor which is expressed and localized in the placenta. Our earlier cross sectional study has shown altered NGF levels at delivery in women with PE. However, there are no studies on NGF levels in PE early in pregnancy before manifestation of the disease. Thus, there is a need to examine the role of NGF in vascular development during different stages of gestation in PE. A longitudinal study was carried out where pregnant women were enrolled from two major hospitals from Pune, Bharati hospital and Gupte hospital. They were followed at three different time points [16–20 weeks (T1), 26–30 weeks (T2) and at delivery (T3)] during pregnancy and maternal blood at every time point and cord blood at delivery was collected and processed. This study included normotensive women (n = 88) and women with PE (n = 48). NGF levels were measured from maternal and cord plasma using the Emax Immuno Assay System (Promega). The data was analyzed using the SPSS/PC+ package (Version 20.0, Chicago, IL, USA). Maternal NGF levels did not change at all time points while cord NGF levels were higher (p < 0.05) in women with PE. Further, maternal NGF levels were negatively associated with blood pressure while cord NGF levels were positively associated with baby head circumference. Our data suggests that there may possibly be a compensatory role for NGF in the foeto-placental circulation in PE.