Animal Model and Predictive Test Developed for Preeclampsia

Scientists have developed a well-defined animal model of preeclampsia and a potential lab test for diagnosing the disease in people. Preeclampsia is a potentially dangerous condition that sometimes occurs during pregnancy and can be fatal for both mother and fetus.

The presence of the immune system secretion Interleukin-10 (IL-10) has been linked to a successful course of pregnancy. Scientists from Brown University and Women & Infants Hospital experimented with mice genetically engineered to lack IL-10. They isolated blood serum from human patients with preeclampsia, gave a dose of it to the mice, and the rodents developed preeclampsia symptoms. Further experiments with nonpregnant mice and pregnant wild mice confirmed that pregnant mice lacking IL-10 provide a unique and dependable model of the disease.

An animal model for preeclampsia will allow for experiments that help gain insight into the cause of the disease and its progression said Surendra Sharma, professor of pediatrics at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University (Providence, RI, USA) and a research scientist at Women & Infants. One observation already made is that there is disruption in the development of "spiral arteries,” which bring nutrients to the fetus from the placenta.

This observation led to the development of a predictive test for preeclampsia. An in vitro culture of two key cell types involved in spiral artery development (endothelial cells and trophoblasts) was exposed to serum from women with normal pregnancies or to preeclampsia serum from women taken at various stages of their pregnancies.

Vasculature developed normally in the presence of serum from women with normal pregnancies whereas preeclampsia serum taken from women as early as 12 to 14 weeks into their pregnancies, about 10 to 12 weeks before they were diagnosed with preeclampsia, was able to disrupt vascular formation.

Prof. Sharma is continuing to refine the test for eventual clinical use.

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Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University