New evidence for the fetal insulin hypothesis: fetal angiotensinogen M235T polymorphism is associated with birth weight and elevated fetal total glycated hemoglobin at birth.

Background: Low birth weight is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events in later life. Insulin resistance is a key finding in adult patients with cardiovascular diseases. The neonatal phenotype of an individual with insulin resistance might be low birth weight, as insulin influences fetal growth.

Impact of maternal angiotensinogen M235T polymorphism and angiotensin-converting enzyme insertion/deletion polymorphism on blood pressure, protein excretion and fetal outcome in pregnancy.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that genetically determined alterations of the renin-angiotensin system are associated with hypertensive disorders in pregnancy.

Methods: A genetic association study was conducted at the obstetrics department of the Charité university hospital, Berlin, Germany. A total of 1068 Caucasian women were consecutively included after delivery and genotyped for the angiotensinogen M235T polymorphism and the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) insertion/deletion polymorphism.