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Adenosine-3', 5'-Monophosphate in the Plasma from Human Pregnancy¹

Departments of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology and Biochemistry, and the Endocrine Laboratory, University of Miami School of Medicine

Adenosine-3', 5'-monophosphate (cyclic AMP) concentration was measured in plasma from nonpregnant women; women in the 7–41 weeks of normal pregnancy; during labor; and 5–7 h postpartum. The cyclic AMP levels in the course of normal pregnancy showed an initial peak value at 14 weeks. After falling to nonpregnant level at 18 weeks, it began to rise steadily and reached a second peak at 34 weeks. A gradual decline was then followed until labor. The postpartum plasma concentration was significantly lower than the nonpregnant level. A similar pattern was found in serial studies in 4 women of normal pregnancy. Sequential cyclic AMP measurement in 5 hypertensive pregnancies showed a markedly elevated level during 16–26 weeks, but became comparable to normal pregnancy values thereafter. In the only preeclamptic patient studied, cyclic AMP was elevated in the 16–27th weeks although no clinical symptom was found until the 31st week. The study showed that the plasma cyclic AMP level in normal pregnancy becomes elevated above nonpregnant level atthe end of the first and during the third trimesters. However, this profile appeared to be altered in pregnancies complicated by hypertension.

¹ Supported in part by grants HL-14141, HD-05866 and HD-03142 From NIH; 0338 fromthe Ford Foundation.

² Present address: The Endocrine Laboratory, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Rm 5G, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building, Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine, Halifax, N.S., Canada.

Received August 13, 1967.