A Nested Case-Control Study of Allopregnanolone and Preterm Birth in the Healthy Start Cohort.

ABSTRACT:

Context

Chronic stress is a risk factor for preterm birth; however, objective measures of stress in pregnancy are limited. Maternal stress biomarkers may fill this gap. Steroid hormones and neurosteroids such as allopregnanolone (ALLO) play important roles in stress physiology and pregnancy maintenance and therefore may be promising for preterm birth prediction.

Objective

We evaluated maternal serum ALLO, progesterone, cortisol, cortisone, pregnanolone, and epipregnanolone twice in gestation to evaluate associations with preterm birth.

Methods

We performed a nested case-control study using biobanked fasting serum samples from the Healthy Start prebirth cohort. We included healthy women with a singleton pregnancy and matched preterm cases with term controls (1:1; N = 2

SUBMITTER: Mayne GB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9825133 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature