Exploring the genetic factors that contribute to severe nausea and vomiting in pregnancy

Summary

Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) is a severe form of nausea and vomiting in pregnancy. It affects around 2 in 100 pregnancies (7,200 women per year in the UK) and is the commonest reason for hospital admission in early pregnancy. Women vomit up to 60 times per day and symptoms can last throughout the whole pregnancy. Some women become so distressed that they abort a wanted pregnancy or have suicidal thoughts. Their babies are more likely to have problems with brain development and have increased risk of heart disease, obesity and diabetes (known as metabolic diseases) in later life.  

​The underlying cause of this disease is not well understood. Because it was noticed to run in families, doctors and scientists suspected that genetic factors (changes in DNA sequence, or code) may contribute to the risk of getting HG during pregnancy. In the last few years data has been published that supports this theory, with both rare genetic changes and common genetic changes found in women suffering HG. However, these studies are in urgent need of confirmation and expansion to further our knowledge about the cause of HG and identify potential new treatment targets. In this project we propose to do this by investigating the Bioresource samples for these genetic changes and combining this information with work in other large sample collections (a combined analysis or so called “meta-analysis”).