Objective: To investigate the expression of placental vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its relationship with construction of placental vascular network, placental weight and the newborns' weight in patients with pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH).
Methods: Twenty-five patients with PIH and twenty-five normal late pregnant (NLP) women in the third trimester were observed in this study. The expression of VEGF protein in placental, the placental vascular density were determined by Western blot and immunohistochemical F8 staining respectively.
Results: The VEGF values in patients with PIH and NLP were 24 793 +/- 6 579 and 41 903 +/- 11 009, and the vascular densities were (61 +/- 11) and (78 +/- 11) counts/400 x vision respectively. They were both significantly different in both groups and were closely related to the severity of PIH (P < 0.01). Placental weight and the newborns' weight in patients with PIH [(460 +/- 59) g, (3 176 +/- 503) g respectively] were also significantly decreased compared with NLP [(573 +/- 99) g, (3 468 +/- 493) g respectively], but the new newborns' length had no significant difference between the two groups (P > 0.05). In NLP group, placental vascular density, placental weight and the newborns' weight all had a significantly positive correlation with VEGF (P < 0.01, r = 0.823, 0.671, 0.888 respectively) and in PIH group, the situation was the same (P < 0.01, r = 0.905, 0.859, 0.732 respectively), but the new newborns' length had no correlation with VEGF (P > 0.05).
Conclusion: It shows that the reduced expression of VEGF in placenta of patients with PIH may be one of the important factors responsible for decreased placental vascular density and fetal intrauterine growth restriction.