Abstract

Pregnancies conceived through donor oocytes or sperm show increased risk for preeclampsia. We studied this issue in a preeclampsia case-control cohort (n = 2778), and found overrepresentation of donor cell gestations among women with preeclampsia (14/1627, 0.86%; OR 1.81; 95% CI: 1.07–3.08; P = 0.025) compared to the population data. Moreover, we observed excess of male births from donor cell pregnancies (male-to-female ratio 2.5 vs. 0.97; OR 2.57; 95% CI 1.02–6.36; P = 0.043). Maternal age (36.7 vs. 30.2; P < 0.0001) and preterm deliveries (64% vs. 38%; P = 0.046) distinguished donor cell gestations from other pregnancies with preeclampsia. These results support foreign fetal antigens as modulators of preeclampsia.