The invention provides a method for diagnosing in a subject a condition requiring modulation of or involving trophoblast cell death, differentiation, invasion, and/or cell fusion and turnover, comprising detecting HIF Iα and the factors which modulate or are modulated by this protein, specifically TGFβ3, sFLT, VEGF, SMAD2, 3 and 7, MtdP, MtdL, MclI 1, MclIc, VHL, SiahI, Siah2, ENG, and PHD. The invention also provides a method for diagnosing or distinguishing in a subject a specific condition requiring modulation of or involving trophoblast cell death, differentiation, invasion, and/or cell fusion and turnover, in particular early onset severe preeclampsia (EPE), late onset preeclampsia (LPE) and mtre-uterme growth restriction (IUGR) comprising detecting HLF Iα and the factors which modulate or are modulated by this protein as defined above.