Microvascular changes in pre-eclampsia

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Microvascular changes in pre-eclampsia

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Advice on exercise for pregnant women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.

Reports on advice about exercise for women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are reviewed and how exercise could influence long-term cardiovascular risk is assessed. Exercise in pregnancy seems to be beneficial in pregnancies complicated by hypertension. However, the intensity of the exercise to be recommended remains unclear. Further research is required to inform national and international guidelines for women who develop hypertension during pregnancy

5.5 Successful insilico discovery of novel hypoxia regulated genes in pre-eclampsia.

DDD identified a total of 32 gene clusters to be differentially expressed and six of them were found to be hypoxia regulated. Angiogenin inhibitor, apolipoprotein E, NADH dehydrogenase (ubiquinone) 1, alpha/beta subcomplex, 1 (NDUFAB1) and round about homolog 4 (ROBO4) were the upregulated genes and H19 and growth differentiating factor (GDF15) were the down regulated genes. Rt-QPCR studies showed similar results thus providing a proof that insilico techniques can be used as tools for novel gene discovery in gestational diseases like pre-eclampsia

Hypoxia in pre-eclampsia: cause or effect?

Pre-eclampsia is a pregnancy specific multi-system disorder associated with increased maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. In spite of intensive research for several decades into its pathophysiology, the aetiology remains unexplained. There is evidence that maternal tissue blood flow is reduced in pregnancies complicated by this disease, which precedes clinical onset, and persists after delivery. It is however unclear whether the reduced maternal tissue blood flow is associated with changes in tissue oxygenation and/or abnormal tissue oxygen homeostasis and whether this precedes or follows pre-eclampsia. This review examines the cause and effect relationship between hypoxia and pre-eclampsia and possible underlying mechanism(s) of impairment in oxygen regulation

Relationship between insulin resistance and circulating endothelial cells in pre-eclampsia.

Endothelial dysfunction and insulin resistance (IR) are established features of pre-eclampsia, however the cause and effect relationship between them remain unexplained. Circulating endothelial cells (CEC) are increased in pre-eclampsia and appear to correlate with the degree of endothelial dysfunction. We hypothesised that CEC count in pre-eclampsia would correlate with IR and might provide a simple measure of IR in pregnancies complicated by the disease. CEC count and IR were measured in 10 women with pre-eclampsia and 10 normal pregnant controls matched for maternal age, body mass index and gestational age during the third trimester. CEC count was determined using an established immunomagnetic bead separation method and IR was measured by the homeostasis model test. CEC count and IR were significantly increased in pre-eclampsia compared to normal pregnancy. However, there was no correlation between the CEC count and IR in pre-eclampsia. The data suggest that CEC count in pre-eclampsia is not a useful measure on its own of IR in pregnancies complicated by the disease