Circulating Activin A is elevated at 36 weeks' gestation preceding a diagnosis of preeclampsia

Georgia P Wong; Faith Andres; Susan P Walker; Teresa M MacDonald; Ping Cannon; Tuong-Vi Nguyen; Emerson Keenan; Natalie J Hannan; Stephen Tong; Tu'uhevaha J Kaitu'u-Lino

Journal article

Circulating Activin A is elevated at 36 weeks' gestation preceding a diagnosis of preeclampsia

Georgia P Wong, Faith Andres, Susan P Walker, Teresa M MacDonald, Ping Cannon, Tuong-Vi Nguyen, Emerson Keenan, Natalie J Hannan, Stephen Tong, Tu'uhevaha J Kaitu'u-Lino

Pregnancy Hypertension | Elsevier | Published : 2022

DOI: 10.1016/j.preghy.2021.11.006

Abstract

Activin A is aberrantly expressed by the preeclamptic placenta and circulating levels have been investigated as a potential biomarker for the disease. In a nested case-control study we measured Activin A levels in maternal plasma at 28- and 36-weeks’ gestation preceding term preeclampsia diagnosis. At 28 weeks Activin A was not significantly altered (n = 73 destined to develop preeclampsia vs n = 191 controls). At 36 weeks’ gestation Activin A was significantly increased in 40 women destined to develop preeclampsia relative to 201 controls (p < 0.0001). These findings provide further validation of Activin A as a potential biomarker for subsequent term preeclampsia.

University of Melbourne Researchers

Susan Walker Author

Teresa MacDonald Author

Ping Cannon Author

Vi Nguyen Author

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Grants

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

Funding for this work was provided by the National Health and Medical Research Council (#1065854, #1183854, #116071, #2000732) , National Health and Medical Research Council Fellowships to TKL (#1159261) , NJH (#1146128) , ST (#1136418) . The funders played no role in study design or analysis.