BACKGROUND An association between the level of vitamin D and the risk of pregnancy-related complications remains unclear. The aim of this study was to examine concentrations of 25(OH) vitamin D in Polish women with normal pregnancies and pregnancies complicated by gestational hypertension, preeclampsia or gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Moreover, we analyzed an association between maternal...

This study investigated whether production of reactive oxygen species by neutrophils differs between women with preeclampsia and those with essential hypertension. First, we assessed superoxide production by neutrophils during pregnancy and 4 weeks after delivery in 15 healthy pregnant women, 12 women with preeclampsia, and 7 pregnant women with essential hypertension. We then examined effects ...

Preeclampsia is characterized by hypertension and de novo proteinuria after 20 weeks of pregnancy. It is the leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality in the developed world, and to date, the only means of treating the disease is by inducing delivery. Many studies have shown the benefits of exercise training on normal pregnancy. Conversely, because the impact of exercise on reducing th...

The spiral artery (=SA) is an important muscular artery, which controls the blood volume to the placenta. Preeclampsia is thought to be induced by the failure of the placenta by dysfunction of SA. To clarify the function of SA, we examined forty-eight placentae and its morphological and biological characteristics: 36 normal placentae and 12 placentae with preeclampsia. Gestational age of normal...

Background: Preeclampsia is a common pregnancy-specific disorder associated with significant maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality worldwide. It has been proposed that the imbalance between two CD4+ T cell subtypes, regulatory T cells (Treg) and T-helper 17 cells (Th17), is involved in the pathophysiology of preeclampsia. Objectives: To determine the serum levels of IL-17, IL-21, IL-23 and...

Impaired uterine invasion by extravillous trophoblast in early gestation is implicated in the genesis of preeclampsia, a potentially lethal malady of human pregnancy. However, reasons for extravillous trophoblast dysfunction remain unclear because of virtual inaccessibility of early placental and uterine tissues from women who develop preeclampsia, and the absence of animal models in which the ...

Abnormal uterine perfusion detected by Doppler sonography reflects impaired trophoblast invasion, a factor involved in the pathogenesis of pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia or intrauterine growth retardation. Recent studies have demonstrated an autoantibody against the angiotensin type 1 (AT1) receptor in pregnant women with preeclampsia. Our aim was to determine whether the AT1 auto...

In well-resourced settings, reduced circulating maternal-free placental growth factor (PlGF) aids in either predicting or confirming the diagnosis of preeclampsia, fetal growth restriction, stillbirth, preterm birth, and delivery within 14 days of testing when preeclampsia is suspected. This blinded, prospective cohort study of maternal plasma PlGF in women with suspected preeclampsia was condu...