Researchers in pregnancy smoking link

SCIENTISTS in Edinburgh have discovered why women who smoke have a higher risk of ectopic pregnancies.

Researchers have found that female smokers who have had an ectopic pregnancy have raised levels of a protein called PROKR1 in their Fallopian tubes which increases the risk of an egg implanting outside the womb.

The Edinburgh University team believes a chemical in cigarette smoke triggers a chain reaction that increases PROKR1 in the Fallopian tubes.

While this protein allows the pregnancies to implant correctly inside the womb, its presence in the Fallopian tubes is believed to increase the risks of implantation outside the womb.

Dr Andrew Horne, of the university's Centre for Reproductive Biology, said: "This research provides scientific evidence of how smoking impacts on reproductive health.

"While it may be easy to understand why inhalation of smoke affects the lungs, this shows that components of cigarette smoke also enter the blood stream and affect seemingly unconnected parts of the body like the reproductive tract."