Plasma concentrations of glucagon-like peptide-2 in adult patients with treated and untreated coeliac disease.

Background: Coeliac disease is a common chronic inflammatory enteropathy characterized by villous atrophy and crypt hyperplasia in the small intestine. The mechanism of the intestinal damage in coeliac disease remains unclear. Glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-2 is an enterotrophic peptide that causes crypt hyperplasia and intestinal cell proliferation.

Soluble vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1 (sFlt-1) is increased throughout gestation in patients who have preeclampsia develop.

Objective: This study was undertaken to analyze prospectively circulating vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its soluble receptor, (s) Flt-1, throughout normotensive and preeclamptic pregnancies and to assess the importance of these proteins in the development of preeclampsia.

Study Design: In this longitudinal cohort study, serum samples were collected from recruited subjects throughout pregnancy at 12, 20, 30, and 37 weeks and in the 24 hours before and after delivery. Subjects were divided retrospectively into normotensive and preeclamptic groups.