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Morning sickness. It has been blamed on all sorts of things 鈥� from听carrying girls听to multiple pregnancies. But a UK study of nearly 800 pregnant women suggests that a protein called GDF15 might be the real culprit.

It appears to trigger sickness by acting in the brain, most likely to protect the foetus from circulating toxins or infections.听Targeting听the protein could provide a new and more precise way to combat morning sickness, which affects 70 to 90 per cent of pregnant women.

It has long been known that pregnant women produce听high amounts of听GDF15 in their liver and placental tissue. The protein is normally involved in inflammatory processes associated with tissue injury.

Recently, it was discovered that it is听also associated with听food aversion after researchers showed that听.

To find out if GDF15 is linked to sickness and nausea in pregnant women, at the University of Cambridge and his colleagues measured blood concentrations of the protein in 791 women attending a maternity hospital in Cambridge, between 2001 and 2009.

After delivery, the women filled in questionnaires about their level of morning sickness at different stages of the pregnancy, and whether they had taken any anti-sickness medication.

Those who reported vomiting in the mid stages of pregnancy had significantly higher levels of GDF15 in their blood听鈥� 11,670 picograms per milliletre 鈥� compared with women who were sickness-free, who had on average 10,657 picograms per milliletre.

Levels were even higher, at 13,376 picograms per millilitre, in women who reported taking anti-sickness tablets in pregnancy, who were assumed to have experienced the worst sickness. 鈥淭o our knowledge, this is the first report relating GDF15 concentrations to vomiting during pregnancy,鈥� report the researchers.

The听team suggest that the placenta may have evolved to use GDF15 to put mothers off food that could potentially harm the fetus, especially at sensitive stages when organs are forming. Further research is needed to identify why some people produce more of the protein than others, and how it might be targeted to prevent sickness.

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