PaLS 1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Placental Growth Factor (PlGF) and labour study (PaLS)
IRAS ID
167445
Contact name
Antoniya Georgieva
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 2 months, 1 days
Research summary
The contractions during labour and the birth reduce the oxygen supply to the baby. This is normal and most babies adapt well to the oxidative stress thanks to sophisticated inbuilt biological mechanisms. This ability to adapt will depend on the baby’s health but also on the oxygen reserve of the placenta. Babies that are at increased risk of suffocation during labour (birth asphyxia) are monitored with continuous fetal monitoring, which displays the heart rate of the baby and its responses to the contractions. If the clinicians suspect the baby may not be coping well, they can interfere and help the baby come out quicker. But which babies are at increased risk and should be monitored? We are currently able to identify some of the risk factors but we don’t have any way to assess the placenta and its oxidative reserve. Our research is novel and will investigate a protein produced by the cells of the placenta, called Placental Growth Factor (PlGF). It can be measured in the blood of the mother via a standard blood sample. PlGF has been shown to relate to the oxidative reserve of the placenta in women with certain problems in pregnancy (pre-eclampsia and growth restriction). However, PlGF has never been studied in the context of normal pregnancy and we believe it can give us valuable information about the oxygenation of the placenta for healthy women. This will help us identify rare cases where the baby is at risk of birth asphyxia caused specifically by the placenta.
This study will run for two months and all women, who are over 18 years old, with singleton pregnancies, delivering their first baby at the John Radcliffe Hospital will be eligible. We will collect two standard samples of the woman’s blood. These will be analysed for PlGF.REC name
South Central - Oxford A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/SC/0314
Date of REC Opinion
15 Jun 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion