Human Reproduction, Vol. 14, No. 3, 827-832,
March 1999
© 1999 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology
Serum activin A and follistatin concentrations during human pregnancy: a cross-sectional and longitudinal study
1 Institute of Reproduction and Development, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia and 2 School of Biological and Molecular Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK
Activin A, a dimer of the ßA-subunit of inhibin, has been shown to have multiple biological activities and sites of production. Follistatin is a high-affinity binding protein for activin, which neutralizes its activity. This study provides the first data, using a cross-sectional design, on the measurement of both these proteins in the maternal circulation of a large cohort of women (6–39 weeks of gestation, n = 2–20 women/time point) during normal pregnancies, and confirms that similar patterns are seen in nine women studied longitudinally during pregnancy. The concentrations of total activin A were measured using a specific two-site enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and a new radioimmunoassay for measuring total follistatin in serum utilizing dissociating reagents to eliminate the interference of activin is described. At 38–39 weeks gestation, both activin A and follistatin concentrations rose to a peak (4.59 ± 0.54 ng/ml and 72.7 ± 3.31 ng/ml, respectively). The activin A and follistatin concentrations were highly correlated both in the cross-sectional study (P <0.0001) and in individual women in the longitudinal study (P <0.05–0.0001). Concentrations of follistatin showed a greater increase in the second trimester of pregnancy relative to activin A concentrations. The parallel increase in the secretion of these two proteins throughout pregnancy probably reflects feto-placental secretion.
Key words: activin A/follistatin/human/pregnancy/radioimmunoassay
3 Present address: Division of Animal Physiology, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia
4 Present address: Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Inc., Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 163-0461, Japan
5 To whom correspondence should be addressed
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