A comparative study of the clinical use of four placental proteins in the third trimester

The human placenta secretes a variety of protein hormones and steroids into the maternal circulation; measurement of these is widely used as a diagnostic marker of fetal wellbeing in both early and late pregnancy [3, 9]. The recent identification of a number of new specific placental proteins with no known function [10] has provoked considerable interest in their possible clinical application in pregnancy. Notable among these are pregnancy specific sl glycoprotein (SP1) and placental protein 5 (PP5). Maternal serum levels of SP1 are related to the delivered weight of the infant and can be used to identify intrauterine growth retardation [4,7, 14, 23, 25, 26]. Placental protein 5 is much less efficient in this respect [17] but has great potential interest because of its possible association with the coagulation system [16, 20] and the fact that elevated levels may be associated with pre-eclampsia [11], placental abruption [21] and premature labor [22]. The present study was designed to compare the clinical usefulness of four placental proteins (hCG, hPL, SP1 and PP5) in the prediction of fetal status at delivery (weight and presence or absence of fetal distress).