Investigating the causes of preeclampsia

Larry Chamley, Peter Stone

Preeclampsia affects approximately 3000 New Zealand women and their babies every year. Women with preeclampsia have raised blood pressure that can be life threatening and causes serious harm to both mother and baby. Despite many medical advances, the only successful treatment for preeclampsia remains delivery of the baby – often prematurely.

Preeclampsia may be caused by a factor from the placenta. During pregnancy cells from the surface of the placenta die and fall into the maternal blood. Dr Larry Chamley and Professor Peter Stone have recently shown that if these cells die by a process called necrosis, they cause the endothelial cells that line the maternal blood vessels to become activated. This is a characteristic feature of preeclampsia. Research is now underway to investigate whether it is possible to prevent placental cells dying by necrosis, as a possible treatment for women with pre-eclampsia.

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