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Brief
An investigation into fetal growth restriction through study the mRNA in the mother’s blood at 28 weeks.
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Background
Fetal growth restriction (FGR) can reflect a clinical situation where the placenta is working poorly, leading to a fetus that is suboptimally grown. Importantly, FGR is strongly associated with stillbirth risk. It is therefore an important clinical surrogate marker of stillbirth. Identification of mRNA coding six genes are differentially expressed in the blood of mothers as early as 28 weeks, who are destined to develop FGR at term. For such pregnancies, the clinicians could offer timely delivery and thereby decrease the burden of stillbirth.
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Key takeaways
The research team believes this work provides an important fundamental biological insight into FGR that is clinically noticed only at term. The data suggests that the biological process of FGR is already happening by 28 weeks gestation. This opens the door to the rationale of developing therapies that could be applied during the last trimester of pregnancy since the pathology causing term FGR is already unfolding during this period.
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Key contributors
Professor Stephen Tong
Dr Clare Whitehead -
Full report
Read the full report here: Developing-a-biomarker-blood-test-at-28-weeks-to-identify-pregnancies-at-high-risk-of-fetal-growth-restriction-and-stillbirth
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