Placental Changes in Diabetic Pregnancies Resulting in Stillbirth
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Placental Changes in Diabetic Pregnancies Resulting in Stillbirth
IRAS ID
143515
Contact name
Alexander Heazell
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 31 days
Research summary
The frequency of stillbirth in the UK has not significantly decreased for two decades affecting 1 in 240 births after 24 weeks of pregnancy. Establishing a cause for stillbirth can assist with the management of subsequent pregnancies to prevent recurrent complications. Using current classification systems for stillbirths, up to 30% are attributed to placental dysfunction. Women with stillbirths relating to the placenta often have little understanding of how to prevent complications in subsequent pregnancies.
Diabetes is associated with increased risk of stillbirth. However, we know very little about the reasons for this. We do not know whether the placenta in the cases of stillbirths with maternal diabetes is different from live births with diabetes. To address this we wish to investigate placental tissue from women with diabetes given with consent to the Manchester Children’s Hospital Pathology Department and the Maternal and Fetal Health Research Centre.
We will look at six aspects of placental structure - syncytial knots, trophoblast area, proliferation, number of vessels/villi and apoptosis. We will use techniques we have used to analyse placental structure in stillbirths from babies that are small for gestational age (SGA). We have shown that SGA stillbirths have a more damaged placenta than livebirths. We think that diabetic stillbirths may show similar patterns of damage compared to diabetic live births or healthy controls.
We anticipate that this research project will enhance our understanding of placental changes in maternal diabetes and specifically in diabetic mothers whose pregnancy results in stillbirth. If a significant difference is found in stillborn diabetic pregnancies in comparison to live born infants then we hope that the findings of this research will enable increase understanding of why some babies die, to build a profile that could be used as a predictive tool during pregnancy in the hope of preventing stillbirth.REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/WM/0372
Date of REC Opinion
15 Aug 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion