# Topics and Trends in Most Cited Pregnancy and preeclampsia studies Papers, Class of 2026

*Canonical URL: https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/pregnancy-and-preeclampsia-studies/2026*

## What topics and trends defined most-cited Pregnancy and preeclampsia studies research in the Class of 2026?

The Class of 2026 highlights major advances in understanding preeclampsia and maternal-fetal health. Research increasingly focuses on the decidua and gestational diabetes, with notable surges in studies addressing chronic hypertension and oxidative stress, reflecting a growing emphasis on managing long-term maternal complications.

## At a glance

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Field | Pregnancy and preeclampsia studies |
| Cohort label | Class of 2026 (2024 publications) |
| Papers analyzed | 9,422 |
| Papers ranked | 20 |
| Top topics in ranked papers | Preeclampsia, Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, Pregnancy complications, Decidua, Gestational diabetes mellitus |
| Publication window | Jan 1, 2024 – Dec 31, 2024 |
| Eligibility | Research articles; reviews excluded |
| Citation window | 18 months post-publication |
| 18m citation range | 28–102 |
| Data source | OpenAlex · Retrieved June 2026 |
| License | CC BY 4.0 |

## Rankings

| Rank | Title | Authors | Corresponding authors | Affiliation | Journal | 18m citations | DOI |
| ---: | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---: | --- |
| 1 | Placenta-tropic VEGF mRNA lipid nanoparticles ameliorate murine pre-eclampsia | Kelsey L Swingle, Alex G Hamilton, Hannah C Safford, Hannah C Geisler, Ajay S Thatte, Rohan Palanki, Amanda M Murray, Emily L Han, Alvin J Mukalel, Xuexiang Han, Ryann A Joseph, Aditi A Ghalsasi, Mohamad-Gabriel Alameh, Drew Weissman, Michael J Mitchell | Michael J. Mitchell | University of Pennsylvania, United States | Nature | 102 | 10.1038/s41586-024-08291-2 |
| 2 | MicroRNA-510-3p regulated vascular dysfunction in Preeclampsia by targeting Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A (VEGFA) and its signaling axis | Sushmaa Chandralekha Selvakumar, Auxzilia Preethi K, Durairaj Sekar | Durairaj Sekar | Saveetha University, India | Placenta | 56 | 10.1016/j.placenta.2024.05.135 |
| 3 | Global, regional, and national stillbirths at 20 weeks' gestation or longer in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2021: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 | GBD 2021 Global Stillbirths Collaborators | GBD 2021 Global Stillbirths Collaborators | Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, United States | The Lancet | 56 | 10.1016/s0140-6736(24)01925-1 |
| 4 | Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes and Long-Term Mortality in Women | Casey Crump, Jan Sundquist, Kristina Sundquist | Casey Crump | The University of Texas Health Science Center, United States | JAMA Internal Medicine | 43 | 10.1001/jamainternmed.2024.0276 |
| 5 | Acetyl-CoA metabolism maintains histone acetylation for syncytialization of human placental trophoblast stem cells | Xin Yu, Hao Wu, Jiali Su, Xupeng Liu, Kun Liang, Qianqian Li, Ruoxuan Yu, Xuan Shao, Hongmei Wang, Yan-Ling Wang, Ng Shyh-Chang | Hongmei Wang, Yanling Wang, Ng Shyh‐Chang | State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology, China | Cell stem cell | 43 | 10.1016/j.stem.2024.07.003 |
| 6 | Human uterine natural killer cells regulate differentiation of extravillous trophoblast early in pregnancy | Qian Li, Andrew Sharkey, Megan Sheridan, Elisa Magistrati, Anna Arutyunyan, Oisin Huhn, Carmen Sancho-Serra, Holly Anderson, Naomi McGovern, Laura Esposito, Ridma Fernando, Lucy Gardner, Roser Vento-Tormo, Margherita Yayoi Turco, Ashley Moffett | Qian Li, Roser Vento‐Tormo, Margherita Y. Turco, Ashley Moffett | University of Cambridge, United Kingdom | Cell stem cell | 42 | 10.1016/j.stem.2023.12.013 |
| 7 | Single-nucleus multi-omic profiling of human placental syncytiotrophoblasts identifies cellular trajectories during pregnancy | Meijiao Wang, Yawei Liu, Run Sun, Fenting Liu, Jiaqian Li, Long Yan, Jixiang Zhang, Xinwei Xie, Dongxu Li, Yiming Wang, Shiwen Li, Xili Zhu, Rong Li, Falong Lu, Zhenyu Xiao, Hongmei Wang | Rong Li, Falong Lu, Zhenyu Xiao, Hongmei Wang | Chinese Academy of Sciences, China | Nature Genetics | 42 | 10.1038/s41588-023-01647-w |
| 8 | Trophoblast stem cell-based organoid models of the human placental barrier | Takeshi Hori, Hiroaki Okae, Shun Shibata, Norio Kobayashi, Eri H Kobayashi, Akira Oike, Asato Sekiya, Takahiro Arima, Hirokazu Kaji | Hirokazu Kaji | Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan | Nature Communications | 41 | 10.1038/s41467-024-45279-y |
| 9 | EGFR-targeted ionizable lipid nanoparticles enhance in vivo mRNA delivery to the placenta | Hannah C Geisler, Aditi A Ghalsasi, Hannah C Safford, Kelsey L Swingle, Ajay S Thatte, Alvin J Mukalel, Ningqiang Gong, Alex G Hamilton, Emily L Han, Benjamin E Nachod, Marshall S Padilla, Michael J Mitchell | Michael J Mitchell | University of Pennsylvania, United States | Journal of Controlled Release | 40 | 10.1016/j.jconrel.2024.05.036 |
| 10 | Single-cell assessment of primary and stem cell-derived human trophoblast organoids as placenta-modeling platforms | Matthew J Shannon, Gina L McNeill, Burak Koksal, Jennet Baltayeva, Jasmin Wächter, Barbara Castellana, Maria S Peñaherrera, Wendy P Robinson, Peter C K Leung, Alexander G Beristain | Alexander G. Beristain | British Columbia Children's Hospital Research Institute, Canada | Developmental Cell | 36 | 10.1016/j.devcel.2024.01.023 |
| 11 | Deciphering maternal-fetal cross-talk in the human placenta during parturition using single-cell RNA sequencing | Valeria Garcia-Flores, Roberto Romero, Adi L Tarca, Azam Peyvandipour, Yi Xu, Jose Galaz, Derek Miller, Tinnakorn Chaiworapongsa, Piya Chaemsaithong, Stanley M Berry, Awoniyi O Awonuga, David R Bryant, Roger Pique-Regi, Nardhy Gomez-Lopez | Roberto Romero, Roger Piqué-Regi, Nardhy Gomez‐Lopez | Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, United States | Science Translational Medicine | 34 | 10.1126/scitranslmed.adh8335 |
| 12 | A spatiotemporal transcriptomic atlas of mouse placentation | Yanting Wu, Kaizhen Su, Ying Zhang, Langchao Liang, Fei Wang, Siyue Chen, Ling Gao, Qiutong Zheng, Cheng Li, Yunfei Su, Yiting Mao, Simeng Zhu, Chaochao Chai, Qing Lan, Man Zhai, Xin Jin, Jinglan Zhang, Xun Xu, Yu Zhang, Ya Gao, Hefeng Huang | Yanting Wu, Ying Zhang, Ya Gao, Ya Gao, Hefeng Huang | Fudan University, China | Cell Discovery | 33 | 10.1038/s41421-024-00740-6 |
| 13 | Placenta accreta spectrum disorder at single-cell resolution: a loss of boundary limits in the decidua and endothelium | Yalda Afshar, Ophelia Yin, Anhyo Jeong, Guadalupe Martinez, Jina Kim, Feiyang Ma, Christine Jang, Sarah Tabatabaei, Sungyong You, Hsian-Rong Tseng, Yazhen Zhu, Deborah Krakow | Yalda Afshar | University of California, Los Angeles, United States | American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology | 31 | 10.1016/j.ajog.2023.10.001 |
| 14 | Mediating Factors in the Association of Maternal Educational Level With Pregnancy Outcomes | Tormod Rogne, Dipender Gill, Zeyan Liew, Xiaoting Shi, Vilde Hatlevoll Stensrud, Tom Ivar Lund Nilsen, Stephen Burgess | Tormod Rogne | Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology, United States | JAMA Network Open | 31 | 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.51166 |
| 15 | Term planned delivery based on fetal growth assessment with or without the cerebroplacental ratio in low-risk pregnancies (RATIO37): an international, multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled trial | Marta Rial-Crestelo, Marek Lubusky, Mauro Parra-Cordero, Ladislav Krofta, Anna Kajdy, Eyal Zohav, Elena Ferriols-Perez, Rogelio Cruz-Martinez, Marian Kacerovsky, Elena Scazzocchio, Lucie Roubalova, Pamela Socias, Lubomir Hašlík, Jan Modzelewski, Eran Ashwal, Julia Castellá-Cesari, Monica Cruz-Lemini, Eduard Gratacos, Francesc Figueras, RATIO37 Study Group | F. Figueras | BCNatal-Barcelona Center for Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine, Spain | The Lancet | 31 | 10.1016/s0140-6736(23)02228-6 |
| 16 | Spatial multiomic landscape of the human placenta at molecular resolution | Johain R Ounadjela, Ke Zhang, Koseki J Kobayashi-Kirschvink, Kang Jin, Andrew J C Russell, Andreas I Lackner, Claire Callahan, Francesca Viggiani, Kushal K Dey, Karthik Jagadeesh, Theresa Maxian, Anna-Maria Prandstetter, Naeem Nadaf, Qiyu Gong, Ruth Raichur, Morgan L Zvezdov, Mingyang Hui, Mattew Simpson, Xinwen Liu, Wei Min, Martin Knöfler, Fei Chen, Sandra Haider, Jian Shu | Fei Chen, Sandra Haider, Jian Shu | Massachusetts General Hospital, United States | Nature Medicine | 31 | 10.1038/s41591-024-03073-9 |
| 17 | Longitudinal intravital imaging of mouse placenta | Xiaoyi Zhu, Qiang Huang, Laiming Jiang, Van-Tu Nguyen, Tri Vu, Garth Devlin, Jabbar Shaima, Xiaobei Wang, Yong Chen, Lijun Ma, Kun Xiang, Ergang Wang, Qiangzhou Rong, Qifa Zhou, Yubin Kang, Aravind Asokan, Liping Feng, Shiao-Wen D Hsu, Xiling Shen, Junjie Yao | Xiaoyi Zhu, Qiang Huang, Laiming Jiang, Xiling Shen, Junjie Yao | Duke University, United States | Science Advances | 30 | 10.1126/sciadv.adk1278 |
| 18 | Gestational diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and dyslipidemia as the risk factors of preeclampsia | Farah Aziz, Mohammad Fareed Khan, Amna Moiz | Farah Aziz | King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia | Scientific Reports | 30 | 10.1038/s41598-024-56790-z |
| 19 | PPARγ alleviates preeclampsia development by regulating lipid metabolism and ferroptosis | Weisi Lai, Ling Yu, Yali Deng | Yali Deng | Second XiangYa Hospital of Central South University, China | Communications Biology | 29 | 10.1038/s42003-024-06063-2 |
| 20 | Placental IGFBP1 levels during early pregnancy and the risk of insulin resistance and gestational diabetes | Marie-France Hivert, Frédérique White, Catherine Allard, Kaitlyn James, Sana Majid, François Aguet, Kristin G Ardlie, Jose C Florez, Andrea G Edlow, Luigi Bouchard, Pierre-Étienne Jacques, S Ananth Karumanchi, Camille E Powe | Marie‐France Hivert | Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, United States | Nature Medicine | 28 | 10.1038/s41591-024-02936-5 |

## Topic trends

### What Topics Define the Class of 2026?

The Class of 2026 for Pregnancy and Preeclampsia Studies is firmly anchored in the physiological and clinical challenges of complicated pregnancies. Preeclampsia and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy emerge as the most prominent topics, underscoring the critical need to understand and manage these life-threatening conditions. Additionally, there is a strong focus on the decidua, highlighting research into the maternal-fetal interface, and gestational diabetes mellitus, emphasizing the broader metabolic impacts of pregnancy. The prominence of these interconnected themes reflects a concerted effort within the field to address both the immediate and systemic complications of pregnancy to improve maternal and neonatal outcomes.

*Leading research themes*

### How Did Topics Shift from the Class of 2025 to the Class of 2026?

Comparing the Class of 2025 to the Class of 2026 reveals a distinct shift toward chronic disease management and underlying molecular mechanisms. The most significant surges were seen in research concerning chronic hypertension, oxidative stress, and antioxidant defenses. This points to a growing recognition of the long-term cardiovascular risks associated with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and a deeper investigation into cellular stress responses. Conversely, research explicitly focused on preterm birth and small for gestational age saw relative declines. Together, these trends suggest the field is increasingly prioritizing the study of chronic maternal conditions and molecular pathways over traditional neonatal outcome metrics.

*How topics shifted year over year*

## Cite this ranking

```
Pepkio Research Index (PRI). Topics and Trends in Most Cited Pregnancy and preeclampsia studies Papers, Class of 2026. https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/pregnancy-and-preeclampsia-studies/2026. Accessed 2026-07-21.

Zheng Su, Tinsley Li, Thematic Shifts in Early-High-Impact Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics Research: A Bibliometric and Semantic Analysis. bioRxiv 2026.07.04.736459; doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.07.04.736459
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