Blood macrophage colony-stimulating factor and thrombin-antithrombin III complex concentrations in pregnancy and preeclampsia.

Macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) is a characteristic cytokine that plays an essential role in placenta maintenance, and thrombin-antithrombin III complex (TAT) is a hemostatic marker that is remarkably altered both in normal pregnancy and in preeclampsia. The present study was designed in order to show various levels of M-CSF and TAT in pregnancies. Peripheral blood was collected from 49 subjects, of whom 31 were normal pregnant women consisting of the four groups (namely 10th, 20th, 30th, and 38th weeks of gestation), 13 were preeclamptic pregnant women (37th week of gestation; mean blood pressure, 158/99 mm Hg), and 5 were nonpregnant controls. We compared blood M-CSF and TAT levels among them. Results showed that blood M-CSF and TAT levels increased significantly with gestational age. Furthermore, the ratio of increase in M-CSF was significantly lower than that in TAT in normal pregnant women compared with controls. In contrast, the ratio of increase in M-CSF was significantly higher than that in TAT in preeclamptic women compared with normal pregnant women. These results concerning the ratio of increase in M-CSF and TAT have not been reported. These findings show that M-CSF level increases significantly in preeclampsia even in its earlier stage, exhibiting a systolic blood pressure of less than 160 mm Hg.