The findings could have wide-ranging implications for many conditions, including pre-eclampsia (dangerously high blood pressure in pregnancy) and possibly stillbirth and miscarriage, according to Martin Hewison, a professor of molecular endocrinology and deputy director of the Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research at the University of Birmingham.
‘We now know for the first time that immune cells in the placenta act differently according to the levels of vitamin D in the mother’s blood, so it follows that supplementing vitamin D may improve the healthy development of the placenta,’ says Professor Hewison, who is one of the country’s leading experts on vitamin D.
‘This discovery is particularly relevant to pre-eclampsia, as women with the condition have problems with placental blood vessel development and one of the things that vitamin D seems to encourage is blood vessel development in the placenta.’
Pre-eclampsia affects around 6 per cent of all pregnancies. There is no cure, apart from delivering babies early, and in the UK, 1,000 babies and seven mothers die every year as a result.
