Serum Leptin and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in Infants of Pre-eclamptic Mothers

Abstract

The present study was carried out on fifty neonates of pre-eclamptic and eclamptic mothers who admitted to obstetric emergency unit in El-Minia University Hospital with gestational ages (30-40 weeks) from April 2002 to November 2003. They were subdivided into three groups; Group I : twenty two neonates of mothers with mild pre-eclampsia, Group II : twelve neonates of mothers with severe pre-eclampsia, Group III : sixteen neonates of mothers with eclampsia. In addition to twenty apparently healthy neonates, of matched age and sex

served as a control group.

All cases and controls were subjected to thorough full history taking and clinical examination, in addition to the following investigations at time of delivery; measuring of serum levels of leptin and VEGF in cord blood by ELISA technique and also measuring of hemoglobin levels in cord blood. Our results revealed the presence of leptin and VEGF in cord blood of all study groups. There were significantly higher levels of serum leptin and VEGF in infants of both pre-eclamptic and eclamptic mothers as compared to the control group and this was attributed to hypoxia, that increase is related to the severity of pre-eclampsia. Our results showed significantly higher levels of serum leptin in full term infants than pre-tenn infants in the control group while there were non-significant differences between full tenn and pre-term infants of both pre-eclamptic and eclamptic mothers. Also there was a significantly higher level of serum leptin in LGA group as compared to AGA and SGA groups in the control group while there was a non-significant difference in serum Jeptin between the three groups in infants of both pre-eclamptic and eclamptic mothers.