Objectives: To characterise the changes in serum visfatin levels in late normal pregnancy and pre-eclampsia.
Methods: Twenty-seven women with pre-eclampsia were recruited. Twenty-eight women in the third trimester of normal pregnancy served as pregnant control and 28 healthy non-pregnant women as non-pregnant control. Serum levels of visfatin were measured with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
Results: The means of serum visfatin were 626.4+/-45.5 ng/ml (mean+/-SEM) in non-pregnant control, 695.9+/-92.5 ng/ml in pregnant control, and 308.3+/-80.0 ng/ml in pre-eclampsia, respectively, and were significantly different among the groups (p<0.001). Visfatin level was significantly lower in pre-eclampsia compared to non-pregnant control (p=0.004) and pregnant control (p<0.001). Women with severe pre-eclampsia had a significantly lower serum visfatin level than those with mild pre-eclampsia (114.6+/-80.9 versus 425.2+/-122.1 ng/ml, p=0.037).
Conclusions: A decrease in visfatin level was demonstrated in pre-eclampsia, suggesting that visfatin and adipokine-associated metabolic abnormalities are involved in the pathogenesis of the disease.