M Fejzo, N Rocha, I Cimino, S M Lockhart, C J Petry, R G Kay, K Burling, P Barker, A L George, N Yasara, A Premawardhena, S Gong, E Cook, D Rimmington, K Rainbow, D J Withers, V Cortessis, P M Mullin, K W MacGibbon, E Jin, A Kam, A Campbell, O Polasek, G Tzoneva, F M Gribble, G S H Yeo, B Y H Lam, V Saudek, I A Hughes, K K Ong, J R B Perry, A Sutton Cole, M Baumgarten, P Welsh, N Sattar, G C S Smith, D S Charnock-Jones, A P Coll, C L Meek, S Mettananda, C Hayward, N Mancuso, S O'Rahilly
GDF15, a hormone acting on the brainstem, has been implicated in the nausea and vomiting of pregnancy, including its most severe form, hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), but a full mechanistic understanding is lacking1-4 . Here we report that fetal production of GDF15 and maternal sensitivity to it both contribute substantially to the risk of HG. We confirmed that higher GDF15 levels in maternal blood are associated with vomiting in pregnancy and HG. Using mass spectrometry to detect a naturally labelled GDF15 variant, we demonstrate that the vast majority of GDF15 in the maternal plasma is derived from the feto-placental unit...
December 13, 2023: Nature