Hypoadiponectinemia and circulating angiogenic factors in overweight patients complicated with pre-eclampsia

Objective: Obesity is a risk factor for pre-eclampsia, and adiponectin is an important adipocyte-derived hormone that might protect the endothelium. Recent reports have underlined importance of circulating angiogenic factors for pathophysiology of pre-eclampsia. Here we examined whether adiponectin in conjunction with angiogenic factors plays some roles in the pathophysiology of pre-eclampsia. Study design: We measured serum concentrations of adiponectin and angiogenic factors, vascular endothelial growth factor, placental growth factor, and the soluble vascular endothelial growth factor receptors, soluble fms-like tyrosine Kinase 1 (sFlt-1) and soluble fetal liver kinase 1 (sFlk-1), in women with pre-eclampsia and healthy pregnant women. We also investigated the differences of these factors in overweight and normal-weight patients with pre-eclampsia. Results: Significant correlations were found among the circulating adiponectin and angiogenic factors placental growth factor (R = 0.772, P = .0012) and sFlt-1 (R = 0.787, P = .0005); while, no correlation was found between adiponectin and sFlk-1 (R = 0.3, P = .3434) in patients with pre-eclampsia. Overweight patients with pre-eclampsia showed significantly lower adiponectin levels and a mild imbalance of circulating angiogenic factors, compared with normal-weight patients with pre-eclampsia. Conclusion: Overweight women with pre-eclampsia appeared to have lower levels of adiponectin and sFlt1 and higher levels of placental growth factor than women with pre-eclampsia who were of normal weight. These results suggest that hypoadiponectinemia might be involved in the pathophysiology of overweight patients with pre-eclampsia.