Death associated protein kinase 1 (DAPK-1) is increased in preeclampsia

Introduction: Death associated protein kinase-1 (DAPK-1) is highly expressed in the placenta relative to all other human tissues. We examine whether it is differentially expressed with preeclampsia. Methods: We examined samples from a large prospective collection of plasma from 2002 women. We split the samples into two cohorts: Cohort 1 (n = 1000) and Cohort 2 (n = 1002). We first measured circulating DAPK-1 at 36 weeks' gestation in a nested case-control group (from Cohort 1) of 39 women who developed preeclampsia and 98 controls. We then validated our findings by measuring circulating levels in all samples from both cohorts. We also measured DAPK-1 in the circulation and placentas of women who were diagnosed with preterm preeclampsia or delivered a growth restricted infant at < 34 weeks' gestation. Results: In the case-control study, circulating DAPK-1 was significantly increased in women destined to develop preeclampsia (p < 0.01). We validated this by measuring circulating levels in Cohorts 1 and 2. Again, circulating DAPK-1 was significantly higher (p < 0.001) among women destined to develop preeclampsia (Cohort 1, Area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUC) = 0.66; Cohort 2 AUC = 0.67). Circulating DAPK-1 was also significantly elevated in women with established preterm preeclampsia. Placental DAPK-1 mRNA and protein expression were elevated in women with established preeclampsia. Discussion: DAPK-1 is a novel placenta-enriched molecule that is elevated in the circulation of women preceding the diagnosis of preeclampsia and is likely to be secreted from the placenta.