Journal of Steroid Biochemistry & Molecular Biology 89–90 (2004) 553–556 Longitudinal changes in maternal serum 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D and insulin like growth factor I levels in pregnant women who developed preeclampsia: comparison with normotensive pregnant women  Ali Halhali a,∗ , Antonio R. Villa a , Elsie Madrazo a , Mar´ ıa Celina Soria a , Erendira Mercado a , Lorenza D´ ıaz a , Euclides Avila a , Michèle Garabédian b , Fernando Larrea a a Departamento de Biolog´ ıa de la Reproducción, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, Vasco de Quiroga No 15, Col.Tlalpan, C.P. 14000, México DF, Mexico b Unité CNRS UPR 1524, H ˆ opital Saint Vincent de Paul, 82 Avenue Denfert Rochereau, Paris 75014, France Abstract This study was undertaken to determine the longitudinal changes of serum 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25-(OH) 2 D) and insulin like growth factor I (IGF-I) levels at 20.7, 27.6, and 35.5 week periods of gestation in 40 pregnant women who remained normotensive (NT) and in 10 women who developed preeclampsia (PE). As compared with the first period, significant increases (P< 0.01) in maternal serum 1,25-(OH) 2 D and IGF-I were observed in the NT group. In the PE group, a similar increase in serum 1,25-(OH) 2 D was observed. In contrast, significant (P< 0.05) lower IGF-I levels were observed in the PE group at the moment of diagnosis. In addition a high incidence of subjects with low increase in IGF-I levels (<percentile 10) was found in the PE group (30% versus 5%, P = 0.02). In conclusion, circulating levels of 1,25-(OH) 2 D were not alterated in women before they developed PE. In the opposite, the high percentage of PE women with low increase in circulating IGF-I levels between the 20th and 35th week of pregnancy suggests early alterations of IGF-I synthesis in women developing PE. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D; Insulin like growth factor I; Preeclampsia 1. Introduction It has been reported that insulin-like growth fac- tor I (IGF-I) stimulates renal 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25-(OH) 2 D) production in nonpregnant human and ro- dents [1–10]. In addition, previous results from this lab- oratory showed a stimulatory effect of IGF-I on placental 1,25-(OH) 2 D synthesis [11,12], indicating that this growth factor could be a physiological regulator of Vitamin D metabolism during pregnancy. Preeclampsia (PE) is a preg- nancy disorder characterized by hypertension and protein- uria [13]. Interestingly, in our previous studies [14,15], low maternal circulating levels of 1,25-(OH) 2 D and IGF-I have been found in established PE. These observations prompted us to study longitudinal changes of 1,25-(OH) 2 D and IGF-I serum levels in pregnant women who remained  Presented at the 12th Workshop on Vitamin D (Maastricht, The Netherlands, 6–10 July 2003). ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +52-55-5573-1160; fax: +52-55-5655-9859. E-mail address: alih@quetzal.innsz.mx (A. Halhali). normotensive (NT) and to determine whether alterations in circulating levels of these two hormones could be observed in those women before they developed PE. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Subjects Maternal blood samples were obtained in accordance with the guidelines of the declaration of Helsinki, and the protocol of this study was approved by the Human Ethics Committee of the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán. The study was done longi- tudinally at three gestational periods (median: 20.7, 27.6, and 35.5 weeks) and included 170 healthy normotensive pregnant women. During this study, 160 women remained NT and 10 developed PE at the third gestational period (PE group), which corresponded to an incidence of 5.88%. Diagnosis of PE was based on the simultaneous presence of hypertension (systolic blood pressure ≥140 mm Hg and/or 0960-0760/$ – see front matter © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jsbmb.2004.03.069