Resumen de Women with psychotic episodes during pregnancy show increased markers of placental damage with Tenney-Parker changes
Miguel A. Ortega, Oscar Fraile Martínez, Cielo Garcia Montero, Sonia Rodríguez Martín, Rosa María Funes Moñux, Leonel Pekarek, Coral Bravo Arribas, Juan De León Luis, Miguel Ángel Saez García, Luis Alberto González Guijarro, Guillermo Lahera Forteza, Jorge Monserrat Sanz, Roberto Rodríguez Jiménez, José Vicente Saz Pérez, María Julia Araceli Buján Varela, Natalio García Honduvilla, Melchor Álvarez de Mon Soto, Miguel Ángel Álvarez de Mon González
Psychosis is a hazardous and functionally disruptive psychiatric condition which may affect women in pregnancy, entailing negative consequences for maternofetal well-being. The precise pathophysiological basis and consequences of a psychotic episode in pregnancy remain to be further elucidated. The placenta is a pivotal tissue with many functions in the gestational period, critically influencing the fate and development of pregnancy. Although detrimental alterations have been observed in women undergoing severe psychiatric disorders in pregnancy, there are little studies evaluating the consequences of suffering from a psychotic episode in the placental tissue In this work, we have evaluated the histopathological consequences of a first episode of psychosis in pregnancy (FE-PW; N=22) and compare them with healthy pregnant women (HC-PW; N=20) by using histological, immunohistochemical and gene expression techniques. Our results define that the placental tissue of FE-PW display an increase in the number of placental villi, bridges, syncytial knots and syncytial knots/villi. Besides, we have also observed an enhanced gene and protein expression in FE-PW of the hypoxic marker HIF-1α, together with the apoptotic markers BAX and Bcl-2. To our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating significant histopathological changes in the placenta of women suffering a new-onset psychotic episode in pregnancy. Further studies should be aimed at deepening the knowledge about the pernicious effects of psychosis in the maternofetal tissues, as well as the potential implications of these alterations.
