General Obstetrics and Gynecology ObstetricsPlasma adenosine levels increase in women with normal pregnancies☆,☆☆
Section snippets
Patients and methods
Patients were recruited from the Obstetrics Outpatient Department of the Nippon Medical School Hospital. The criteria for eligibility were as follows: (1) a woman in the third trimester of normal pregnancy, (2) well-established gestational age corroborated by ultrasonography before 20 weeks’ gestation, (3) a singleton fetus, (4) no fetal anatomic anomaly, (5) nonsmoker, (6) normal response to glucose tolerance testing, (7) no evidence of recent infection (eg, rubella, toxoplasma, hepatitis B
Results
As shown in Fig 1, plasma adenosine levels averaged 0.18 ± 0.08 μmol/L in nonpregnant women and 0.59 ± 0.08 μmol/L in normal pregnant women.
Comment
In this study a pronounced elevation of maternal plasma adenosine level was found in the third trimester of normal pregnancy. The elevation was accompanied by evidence of platelet activation, strongly suggesting that platelets contribute significantly to the increased adenosine levels. The results also showed an increase of plasma 5′-nucleotidase activity, pointing to more rapid breakdown of adenosine precursors. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report regarding plasma levels of
Acknowledgements
We thank Dr Hideki Konishi for his excellent suggestions and Christian Hunter for aid in preparing the manuscript.
References (20)
- et al.
Relationship between plasma adenosine concentration and breathing movements in growth-retarded fetuses
Am J Obstet Gynecol
(1994) - et al.
The relationship between uterine artery Doppler velocimetry and umbilical venous adenosine levels in pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia
Am J Obstet Gynecol
(1996) - et al.
Increased thromboxane biosynthesis in normal pregnancy is mainly derived from platelets
Am J Obstet Gynecol
(1987) - et al.
Liver function tests in normal pregnancy: A prospective study of 103 pregnant women and 103 matched control
Hepatology
(1996) - et al.
Simultaneous measurement of adenosine and hypoxanthine in human umbilical cord plasma using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with photo diode-array detection and on-line validation of peak purity
J Chromatogr B Biomed Sci Appl
(1998) Adenosine and the concept of retaliatory metabolites
Trends Biochem Sci
(1984)- et al.
Plasma levels of beta-thromboglobulin and platelet factor IV as indices of platelet activation in vivo
Blood
(1981) - et al.
Role of adenosine in the antiplatelet action of HL725, a potent inhibitor of cAMP phosphodiesterase: species differences
Thromb Res
(1987) - et al.
Maternal ovine placental vascular responses to adenosine
Am J Obstet Gynecol
(1986) - et al.
The release of nucleotides, 5hydroxy-tryptamine and enzymes from human platelets during aggregation
J Physiol
(1968)
Cited by (0)
- ☆
Supported by Grants-in-Aid (Nos. 40089175, 00201096, and 30267174) from the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture and a grant from the Japan Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Ogyaa Donation Foundation.
- ☆☆
Reprint requests: Yoshio Yoneyama, MD, Nippon Medical School, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 1-1-5, Sendagi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8603, Japan.