Elevation of both maternal and fetal extracellular circulating deoxyribonucleic acid concentrations in the plasma of pregnant women with preeclampsia

OBJECTIVE: Elevated amounts of circulating fetal deoxyribonucleic acid in maternal plasma have recently been detected in pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia. We attempted to confirm this finding and simultaneously examined the quantity of maternal circulating deoxyribonucleic acid. STUDY DESIGN: Circulating deoxyribonucleic acid was measured by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction in plasma samples obtained from 44 women with preeclampsia and a matched cohort of 53 normotensive pregnant women. RESULTS: We confirmed that circulating fetal deoxyribonucleic acid levels were significantly elevated in pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia (3194.6 vs 332.8 copies/mL; P < .001). We also showed for the first time that circulating maternal deoxyribonucleic acid levels are also elevated (219,023.9 vs 20,235.8 copies/mL; P < .001). The increases in these deoxyribonucleic acid levels corresponded to the severity of the disorder, and values were correlated with each other in pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia (r = 0.556; P < .001) but not normotensive pregnancies (r = 0.046; P = .747). CONCLUSION: The releases of both free fetal and maternal deoxyribonucleic acid were found to be affected in preeclampsia.