The miscarriages, natural or involuntary they are those that occur before the 20th week of gestation, and unfortunately they are more frequent than we think, it is believed that half of the conceptions do not reach term, what happens is that many times the pregnancy is lost even before knowing We have been pregnant.
As published in the scientific journal Human Reproduction, researchers from the University of Sheffield, in the United Kingdom, they could have found a solution to prevent miscarriages. They have identified a protein involved in the development of the placenta that also contributes to the correct implantation of the embryo in the uterus in the early stages of pregnancy.
Going through an abortion is a very hard situation for the couple, a trance in which we ask ourselves why, we feel responsible and we are struck by the question of whether we can fulfill the dream of having a child. There are women who have been through this more than once, known as recurrent abortions, one after another, which makes the situation worse.
It's great news to know that science could have found a solution to improve treatments in usual pregnancy complications such as recurrent miscarriages, intrauterine growth retardation and preeclampsia, a disorder of high blood pressure of the mother during pregnancy.
The researchers identified a protein called syncitin-1, whose origin is in a viral infection that affected our primate ancestors 25 million years ago. This protein is secreted on the surface of the developing embryo, even before it is implanted in the uterus, so they consider it likely to play an important role in helping embryos adhere to the uterus, as well as in the formation of the uterus. placenta.
The hope of the finding is that it could identify possible problems with a simple analysis of the mother. Professor Harry Moore, co-director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology at Sheffield University and principal author of the work, has stated that its finding is key to developing blood tests that allow to identify risk pregnancies, and pregnancy complications such as recurrent miscarriages, preeclampsia, or delayed intrauterine growth, as well as to develop appropriate treatments to address them.
They also discovered that trophoblastic cells that secrete the protein, not only fuse forming a fundamental barrier to protect the embryo, but also secrete exosomes, which have the ability to communicate with cells in other areas of the woman to prepare her body for the pregnancy. And if this process, says Professor Moore, does not develop properly in the early stages of pregnancy, it can cause problems during pregnancy.
