The prognosisdiagnosis of common pregnancy complications utilising genetic material found in extracellular vesicles derived from maternal blood and urine.

Summary The ultimate objective of this research is to develop a test for the early detection of common pregnancy disorders.

Project Details

In this project we focus on extracellular vesicles found in the blood and urine of women in early pregnancy before the onset of pregnancy complications. Extracellular vesicles are small particles released by cells that play important roles in normal health and disease states. Extracellular vesicles contain many factors needed for cell-to-cell communication, and they are readily taken up by other cells needed for normal health and repair.

Healthy women will be recruited during the second trimester of their pregnancy. Extracellular vesicles will be purified from the blood andor urine and the contents of these extracellular vesicles, particularly the genetic material (RNA), will be isolated and characterised. We believe that specific types of genetic material (small RNAs) identified in association with specific pregnancy complications before the onset of disease may be useful as prognosticdiagnostic indicators of future pregnancy complications.

The knowledge we gain from this study will lay the foundations for developing novel diagnostic test(s) to identify those women most at risk of developing pregnancy complications but also to potentially treat these medical conditions.