Identification of the genes involved in recurrent molar pregnancies
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Identification of the genes involved in recurrent molar pregnancies
IRAS ID
214763
Contact name
Rosemary Fisher
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Imperial College London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 28 days
Research summary
Approximately 1 in 600 pregnancies develop as a hydatidiform mole, an abnormal pregnancy characterised by overgrowth of the placenta and poor fetal development. Tumours of the placenta develop in approximately 10% of these pregnancies so women who have a molar pregnancy are registered with a specialist centre and screened to enable early treatment. While most women with a molar pregnancy subsequently go on to have normal pregnancies, there are a small number of women who have recurrent molar pregnancies and are unlikely to have a normal pregnancy. In order to try and help women with recurrent molar pregnancies achieve a normal pregnancy we need to identify those genes that are involved in this condition and find out what their normal function is. We, and others, have shown that this condition can be inherited and in this case one of two genes, NLRP7 or KHDC3L, are usually involved. However, some women with recurrent molar pregnancies do not have the inherited form of the condition and we still need to identify the cause of the problem in these women. In order to do this we will ask women with recurrent molar pregnancies to provide a sample of saliva from which we can then make DNA. We will then use some exciting new technology to sequence DNA from these samples and compare the sequence with that of the normal population. We hope that this will enable us to identify a consistent change from the normal sequence of DNA in those women who have recurrent molar pregnancies which would indicate the gene(s) that is abnormal in this condition. This would be the first step to investigating the function of this gene, understanding what is causing the recurrent molar pregnancies and potentially being able to help women with this condition.
REC name
London - London Bridge Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/2003
Date of REC Opinion
23 Jan 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion