Is the Plasma Concentration of CAPGDF15 Increased in Pregnancy? A Pilot Study

Background and Purpose During pregnancy, the hormone GDF15 rises between 100-200 times higher than before pregnancy. The significance of this dramatic increase is not clarified, but it has been shown that pregnant women with insufficient increase in GDF15 have a higher risk of spontaneous abortion. CAPGDF15 is a small peptide consisting of 12 amino acids recently found in plasma in both mice and humans, and this peptide is part of the prohormone from which GDF15 is synthesized. Therefore, the assumption is that CAPGDF15 is secreted simultaneously with GDF15. The significance of CAPGDF15 in the organism is completely unknown, except that injection into mice reduces food intake. Therefore, the investigators are interested in investigating whether there is a similar dramatic upregulation of CAPGDF15 as with GDF15 itself. The investigators will not set up a large-scale study without having some prior knowledge of whether this is indeed the case. Therefore, the investigators will conduct a pilot study on 3 pregnant women and 3 control women to examine whether there is any reason to proceed with an actual scientific experiment. Since the increase in GDF15 itself is very large at least100 fold, a pilot study involving only 3 pregnant women and 3 non-pregnant women will be sufficient to gain an impression of whether there is also a significant increase in CAPGDF15. The data will be used to assess whether an actual research project is worth establishing. Purpose: The purpose of conducting this pilot study is to investigate whether there is an upregulation of CAPGDF15 similar to that of the hormone GDF15 during pregnancy. By conducting a pilot study on 3 pregnant women and 3 control women, the investigators will see if this is actually the case before setting up an actual scientific experiment.