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• Pre-eclampsia information

Pre-eclampsia research at the Manchester research centre

The work with pre-eclampsia involves studies in both the clinic and laboratory. The focus is to identify what causes pre-eclampsia to develop, why some women at more at risk and to find ways to stop women from developing the condition. Find out more about the pregnancy condition pre-eclampsia.

Circulating factor

The current theory about the cause of pre-eclampsia is that the placenta produces a factor that is carried in the mother's blood which causes the disease to develop. We now know that this factor is present in the mother's blood many weeks before clinical symptoms of the condition become apparent.  This has wide implications for the screening of pregnant women and potential treatment of pre-eclampsia.  If we could develop a way to block the factor in the mother's blood stream or to prevent its actions between 22 weeks and the onset of the disease, it should be possible to prevent pre-eclampsia from ever developing.  The challenge now is to identify what the circulating factor is as once it has been identified, it will be easier to find a way to block it and to develop a treatment for the condition.

Blood vessels

Blood vessels of women with pre-eclampsia behave differently to those of women who have normal pregnancies.  Drugs which relax the endothelium (lining cells) of women experiencing normal pregnancies have little or no effect in those suffering pre-eclampsia. 

If blood vessels relax it increases blood supply, and hence the flow of oxygen to target organs.  Nitric oxide is a naturally occurring substance that causes the blood vessels to relax.  One particular group of drugs enhance the effects of nitric oxide, the most famous example being Viagra, which has been used to treat impotence.  When blood vessels from pre-eclamptic women are treated with these drugs, they behave more like those from normal pregnant women.