Observations on lipid metabolism in normal pregnancy and in some pathological pregnancy disorders

Chemical determination of total and esterified cholesterol and electrophoretic separation of plasma lipoproteins was carried out in a chemico-clinical approach to the pathology of lipide metabolism in pregnancy. In a future study, the investigation will be extended to the neonatal aspect of the problem. 136 women were studied, with 446 samples being taken, specifically: 65 controls, i.e. pregnant women not presenting pathology that might obviously involve lipide metabolism, 36 hypertense pregnant women, 28 diabetic and 7 with gravidic hepatosis. Observation of the data confirms that in pregnancy there is a steady, meaningful increase in cholesterolaemia and that the electrophoretic picture shows a steady reduction in alpha-lipoproteins, with stimulatneous increase in pre-beta proteins, reaching a peak in hepatosis cases, and an increase in beta lipoproteins. All this agrees with functional and teleological modifications in lipide metabolism during gestation.