Fetal and maternal contributions to risk of pre-eclampsia: population based study.

OBJECTIVE

To use familial patterns of recurrence of pre-eclampsia to investigate whether paternal genes expressed in the fetus contribute to the mother's risk of pre-eclampsia and whether mother's susceptibility to pre-eclampsia is related to maternal inheritance by mitochondrial DNA.

DESIGN

Linked data on pregnancies of different women who had children with the same father, and subsequently linked data on pregnancies of half sisters who either had same mother and different fathers or had same father and different mothers.

SETTING

Population based data from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway covering all births since 1967 (about 1.7 million) and the Norwegian Central Population Register.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Relative risk of pre-eclampsia after a previous pre-eclamptic pregnancy in the family. Relative risks approximated by odds ratios.

RESULTS

If a woman becomes pregnant by a man who has already fathered a pre-eclamptic pregnancy in a different woman her risk of developing pre-eclampsia is 1.8 (95% confidence interval 1.2 to 2.6). If the woman has a half sister who had pre-eclampsia and with whom she shares the same mother but different fathers the risk of pre-eclampsia is 1.6 (0.9 to 2.6). If the two sisters have the same father but different mothers the risk is 1.8 (1.01 to 2.9).

CONCLUSIONS

Both the mother and the fetus contribute to the risk of pre-eclampsia, the contribution of the fetus being affected by paternal genes. Mitochondrial genes, which are transmitted by mothers, do not seem to contribute to the risk.