The role of Follistatin-like 3 (FSTL3) in the aetiology of placentally-related complications of human pregnancy (360G-Wellcome-211758_Z_18_Z)

Preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction (FGR) are two of the great obstetrical syndromes (1). These disorders cause short term complications for the infant and have been associated with a range of diseases in adult life, such as ischemic heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and long term neurodevelopmental disorders (2). Moreover, these complications have profound effects on maternal morbidity and mortality. Preeclampsia is one of the leading causes of maternal death globally and both preeclampsia and FGR are markers for the mother’s later risk of cardiovascular disease (3). Both preeclampsia and FGR are associated with abnormal placental function and metabolism (4). We have assembled an extremely well phenotyped cohort of more than 4500 women (the Pregnancy Outcome Prediction Study, POPS). RNA-seq (100M reads in ~250 placental samples) has identified dysregulated transcripts. Several of these encode secreted proteins that have potential as predictive biomarkers and may also function in maternal systemic circulation. The aim of this project is to assay FSTL3 in serum samples from the POPS biobank to determine whether this alone, or in combination with other already measured factors has utility for predicting preeclampsia and/or FGR.