Abstract
Objective
Recently our group has found that the correlation between birth weight and placental
weight – an index of a balanced feto-placental unit development – is influenced by
genetic factors. Since adenylate kinase locus 1 (AK1) is a polymorphic enzyme that plays an important role in the synthesis of nucleotides
required for many metabolic functions, we have investigated the possible role of its
genetic variability in the correlation between birth weight and placental weight.
Study design
342 consecutive healthy newborn infants from the population of Rome (Italy) and 286
puerperae from another population from Central Italy were studied.
Results
The correlation coefficient between birth weight and placental weight is much higher
in infants with low activity AK12-1 phenotype than in those with high activity AK11 phenotype. The difference between AK1 and AK12-1 is well marked only in newborns with a gestational age greater than 38 weeks and
it is not influenced by sex, maternal age and maternal smoking. A similar pattern
is observed with maternal AK1 phenotype.
Conclusions
These results suggest that the difference in enzymatic activity between AK1 phenotypes influencing the equilibrium among ATP, ADP, AMP and adenosine could have
an important role in a balanced development of feto-placental unit.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 01, 2011
Accepted:
July 11,
2011
Received in revised form:
July 2,
2011
Received:
April 4,
2011
Identification
Copyright
© 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
