title: Biomarker development for presymptomatic molecular diagnosis of preeclampsia: feasible, useful or even unnecessary?
abstract: The past decade saw the advent of a number of promising biomarkers to detect pregnancies at risk for preeclampsia (PE), the foremost being those associated with an imbalance of angiogenic factors. In late pregnancy, these are useful for the detection of imminent cases of PE, while earlier they were more predictive for early- than late-onset PE. This suggests that there may be fundamental differences between the underlying pathology of these two PE forms. Therefore, it is possible that such a biological premise may limit the development of biomarkers that will permit the efficacious detection of both early- and late-onset PE via an analysis of first-trimester maternal blood samples. Consequently, a significant increase in our understanding of the underlying pathology of PE, using a variety of approaches ranging from systems biology to animal models, will be necessary in order to overcome this obstacle.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Prenatal Medicine, Department of Biomedicine, University Hospital Basel, Hebelstrasse 20, CH 4031 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Sinuhe
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hahn
authors.forename: Olav
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Lapaire
authors.forename: Nandor Gabor
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Than
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D058070:Asymptomatic Diseases; D015415:Biomarkers; D005260:Female; D037161:Galectins / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D015994:Incidence; D010920:Placenta / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011257:Pregnancy Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D037161:Galectins; C038195:LGALS13 protein, human; D011257:Pregnancy Proteins
keywords: animal model; early-onset/late-onset; etiology; placenta; preeclampsia; screening