No description available.

Overweight (BMI 25–29) or obese (BMI over 30) pregnant women have an increased risk of complications during pregnancy and childbirth that can harm both women and their children.Due to increased risk for several complications such as of giving birth to large children, malformations or still births, the children have higher risk of obesity, blood pressure diseases and diabetes in childhood and later in life compared with children of normal weight. Various factors affect nutrient supply to the fetus such as activity of transport proteins, maternal and fetal blood flow to and from the placenta and placental metabolism. X-box-binding protein1 (XBP-1) is an important transcription factor that is part of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)and facilitates the breakdown of misfolded proteins and gives ER good quality control over proteins. The purpose of this work was to study the XBP-1 protein in the placenta and see if the cells are stressed in women with obesity and compare levels of this protein with women who are normal weight. Placental expression of XBP-1 was analyzed by use of two different methods western blot including 36 women in three different groups, 12 women who were normal weight, 12 women who were obese and 12 women who were overweight. The second method was real- time polymerase chain reaction (RT- PCR) including 20 women in two different groups, 10 women who were normal weight and 10 women who were obese. The result showed that there was no protein detected in the placenta but there were bands in positive control. XBP-1 mRNA expression did not differ between study groups but there was a tendency towards a significant correlation mRNA and birth weight of the children. This indicate that it may a correlation between them, but our results should be confirmed with larger studies.

No description available.