Statins may prevent miscarriages( Hospital for Special Surgery researc...)

Hospital for Special Surgery researchers have found that statins may be able to prevent miscarriages in women who are suffering from pregnancy complications caused by antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), according to a study in mice. In this autoimmune syndrome, the body produces antibodies directed at phospholipids, the main components of cell membranes. This news comes from a study published in the October issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation that is currently online in advance of print.

In low risk pregnancies, APS is associated with a nine-fold increase in miscarriage. In high-risk pregnancies (women who have had at least three prior losses), APS is associated with a 90 percent risk of miscarriage.

"Statins may work as a treatment for women with APS-induced pregnancy complications," said Guillermina Girardi, Ph.D., associate scientist at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, who is lead author of the study. "They are drugs that have been shown to be very safe. There are a lot of women who continue to take statins through pregnancy and the drugs have not been shown to produce birth defects." Statins do not increase the risk of bleeding like anticoagulants, the current treatment for patients with APS.

In previous studies, Dr. Girardi and colleagues showed that antiphospholipid (aPL) antibodies in female mice caused inflammation that injured the placentas and induced abortions. These antibodies activate a protein, C5a, that activates another protein, tissue factor, that is expressed on the surface of certain white blood cells called neutrophils. This spurs the neutrophils into action, they attack the placenta, and the fetus dies. While investigators had unveiled this basic chain of events, they didn't know any further details about the mechanism.

To find out, Dr. Girardi and colleagues examined the white blood cells from mice that had APS and discovered that these cells expressed certain receptors called PAR2 (
'/>"/>