Objective To study the unfavourable effects of intrahepatic cholestasis in pregnancy(ICP) on perinatal infants and its mechanisms.Methods Thirty patients with ICP and thirty normal pregnant women were gathered.Their peripheral blood was collected before therapy.Sixty newborns’ weight,stature,Apgar score,placental weight and meconium staining of amniotic fluid were compared soonly after cesarean section in the 36-38 weeks.Endothelial cells were isolated from human umbilical veins in the 30 normal pregnancy women according to Jaffe’s method.In the fourth or fifth days of cells growth,human umbilical veins endothelial cells(HUVECs) were cocultured with serum of different concentration of ICP group and normal pregnancy group for 24h.The vitality of HUVECs was measured by MTT method.The expression value of vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) was detected by ELISA.Results Compared with normal pregnancy group,neonatal weight,placental weight and Apgar score were markedly lower,the incident rate of meconium staining of amniotic fluid was distinctly higher.With the serum concentration increased,the value of OD decreased.In the same serum concentration,the value of OD in ICP group serum was significantly lower than that in the normal pregnancy group serum,P<0.05.The level of VEGF in ICP group serum was lower than that in the nomal pregnancy group serum.With the serum concentration increased,the level of VEGF decreased in the ICP group.Conclusion ICP has unfavourable effects on the perinatal infants.It maybe have relations with the decrease of VEGF in the vascular endothelial cells.