Infants born to mothers with preeclampsia (PRE) often are growth restricted in utero. Markers of activated endothelium such as cellular fibronectin (cFN) are elevated in plasma from PRE women. In this study we relate levels of cFN in maternal and umbilical cord plasma to indices of fetal growth.Methods: 34 term mother/infant pairs (17 PRE & 17 controls) were enrolled. Maternal plasma collected prior to delivery and mixed arterial-venous umbilical cord plasma collected at delivery were analyzed for cFN (μg/ml). Birth weight (BW)-centile was derived from Magee sex and race-specific norms. Results: [mean (SD)] There was a strong negative correlation between GA and maternal cFN (r= -0.45) and cord cFN (r=-0.49). With regression analysis controlling for GA, maternal cFN predicted BW(p=0.03) and BW-centile (p=0.02), whereas cord cFN did not.Conclusion: We found evidence of activated endothelium in maternal and cord plasma in the PRE group. The elevated cFN in maternal plasma in PRE is associated with lower BW and BW-centile. Speculation: Endothelial activation in PRE is of direct pathophysiologic significance to infant morbidity. Table

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