The vitamin E-binding protein afamin increases in maternal serum during pregnancy.

"Conflict of interest statement H.D. is owner and shareholder of Vitateq Biotechnology GmbH, Innsbruck, Austria, a spin-off biotech company from Innsbruck Medical University, holding several patents related to research described in this article. All other coauthors report no conflict of interest."

"This work was supported by grants from the Austrian Research Fund (P19969-B11) and the Austrian National Bank (12529) to H.D. and from the Munich Center of Health Sciences to H.B. The authors wish to thank Michaela Mair (Innsbruck), Linda Fineder (Innsbruck), Vassiliki Kolovetsiou-Kreiner (Graz), Jakob Kraschl (Graz), Helene Lercher (Graz), Iona Lakovschek (Graz) and Ulrike Rattinger (Graz) for technical assistance and Theresa Czech (Innsbruck) for gathering clinical data and Donna P. Ankerst (Munich, Germany) and Kurt Barnhart (Philadelphia, USA) for helpful discussions, comments and critical reading of the manuscript."