According to the World Health Organization, preeclampsia affects between 2% to 8% of pregnancies. It can cause serious, sometimes fatal, complications in the mother and child. Among other risk factors, such as obesity and diabetes, vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy has been associated with an increased risk of preeclampsia.
In an article in Pregnancy Hypertension, a team of researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) found that expression of a set of genes previously studied in the setting of early onset and severe preeclampsia is significantly affected by vitamin D status during late-stage pregnancy.
Exactly how preeclampsia develops is unclear. Recent evidence points to poor development of blood vessels in the placenta — the organ that nourishes the fetus throughout pregnancy. This leads to hypertension and several other complications in the mother. The only…
