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.