Sensitivity to hormone made by fetus may drive severe pregnancy sickness

Exhaustion, vomiting, and aversion to strong smells are well-known—and well-loathed—pregnancy symptoms. But roughly 2% of pregnant people experience a particularly severe form of sickness known as hyperemesis gravidarum. These expectant parents vomit multiple times a day, which can lead to dehydration, weight loss, and, for some people, hospitalization and potentially life-threatening complications for themselves and the fetus. Now, scientists have turned up new clues about the causes of nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, finding that the severity of illness is influenced by how much of a hormone called GDF15 the growing fetus makes. The team, whose work is described today in Nature , also discovered that levels of GDF15 in the parent’s blood before pregnancy affected their sensitivity to this hormone during gestation. The findings could help explain why some people get particularly sick while expecting and point the way to preventative therapies, say researchers who weren’t involved in the work. “Understanding what causes nausea in pregnancy, and ultimately what we can do potentially in the future to minimize or prevent it even, is a very exciting avenue of research,” says Zev Williams, a reproductive endocrinologist and director of the Columbia University Fertility Center. GDF15 is present in the blood of nonpregnant people and is known to be associated with nausea; it’s also been tested as a weight loss aid because of its t...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news