ENERGY METABOLISM AND PROTEIN SYNTHESIS IN HUMAN LEUKOCYTES DURING PREGNANCY AND IN PLACENTA RELATED TO FETAL GROWTH

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Abstract
Fetal malnutrition may compromise about 3% to 5% of pregnancies; about one-third of infants having birth weights below 2,500 gm may have fetal malnutrition and be "small-for-dates" (rather than premature). Fetal malnutrition predisposes to perinatal episodes of hypoglycemia, to congenital defects, and to poor postnatal growth, and may increase the chance for neurologic defects and/or poor mental development. Beside toxemia of pregnancy, unfavorable socioeconomic status predisposes to fetal malnutrition in our urban and rural populations, as poverty is a major factor in developing countries. To date, only circumstantial evidence relates maternal malnutrition to human fetal malnutrition. Prevention of fetal malnutrition requires diagnosis early in pregnancy. Because metabolism of the peripheral blood leukocyte is distinctly altered in protein-calorie malnutrition, and at term in mothers who deliver infants with fetal malnutrition, it seemed worthwhile to investigate patterns of metabolism in maternal leukocytes during the last trimester. Metabolism of the peripheral blood leukocyte is presumably a reasonable index of cell metabolism in other organs such as liver and muscle, moreover, in some genetically determined enzyme deficiencies, the enzyme defect may also be found in the leukocyte. It, therefore, seemed likely that maternal leukocyte metabolism might serve as a "marker" for intrauterine growth of the fetus. The present studies indicate some patterns of energy metabolism and protein synthesis during the last trimester of pregnancy. Energy metabolism, indicated by the ATP levels and adenylate and pyruvic kinase activities of maternal leukocytes, was shown to increase during the last six to eight weeks of gestation; RNA synthesis, reflected by the level of RNA polymerase activity in the maternal leukocyte, also rises and appears to correlate with the birth weight of the infant.

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