Placental Vitamin D-Binding Protein Expression in Human Idiopathic Fetal Growth Restriction

Vitamin d-binding protein is a multifunctional serum protein with multiple actions related to normal health. vitamin d-binding protein transports vitamin d and influences the metabolism of this key hormone but it also has additional immunomodulatory and actin-clearing properties. we investigated whether vitamin d-binding protein expression is altered in fetal growth restriction-associated placental dysfunction. protein was extracted from 35 placentae derived from 17 healthy control subjects and 18 gestation-matched subjects with fetal growth restriction (fgr). fgr subjects were further subdivided as idiopathic (n=9) and nonidiopathic (n=9). vitamin d-binding protein and 25(oh) vitamin d were measured by elisa and normalized to protein concentration. the results showed significantly reduced levels of placental vitamin d-binding protein (control versus fgr,p<0.05,student's t-test) that were strongly associated with idiopathic fetal growth restriction (p<0.01,kruskal-wallis),whereas levels of vitamin d-binding protein were not associated with placental 25(oh) vitamin d stores (p=0.295,pearson's correlation). as such,vitamin d-binding protein may be a factor in unexplained placental dysfunction associated with idiopathic fetal growth restriction and may potentially serve as a biomarker of this disease. © 2017 alice f. wookey et al.