Maternal serum placental growth hormone and insulinlike growth factor binding proteins 1 and 3 in pregnancies affected by fetal aneuploidy and other abnormalities: Implications for prenatal diagnosis of trisomy 21

In the present study, we determined circulating serum levels of human place ntal growth hormone (hPGH) and insulinlike growth factor binding proteins 1 and 3 (IGFBP-1 and IGFBP-3) using two-site radioimmunoassays during the ge stational midtrimester of pregnancies affected by chromosomal disorders wit h the aim of identifying potential marker substances that might have a sign ificant discriminative and predictive value for prenatal diagnosis of fetal chromosomal aberrations and of organ malformations such as neural-tube def ect. Our results show that the maternal serum levels of hPGH were significa ntly elevated in pregnancies affected by chromosomal anomalies or organ mal formations as compared with controls. The distribution of IGFBP-1 concentra tions for all experimental groups except trisomy 21 were closely similar to the normal population. IGFBP-3 decreased slightly in pregnancies affected by Down syndrome. These findings suggest that hPGH may be useful as an addi tional marker in prenatal screening for Down syndrome.