LEP and preeclampsia: Also, it has been described that leptin reduces cytotrophoblast proliferation (Liu et al., 2009), and as discussed above, an early alteration observed in preeclampsia is a poor cytotrophoblast proliferation, migration, and invasiveness of these cells into the uterus, it has been suggested that hyperleptinemia may play a role in placental ischemia and the consequent development of preeclampsia (Spradley et al., 2015), as shown by Mendieta Zerón et al. (2012).