Funding outcome

Women with high cholesterol levels during pregnancy are at a high risk of developing preeclampsia, a serious pregnancy complication. When pregnant women get preeclampsia, they have high blood pressure and damage to their blood vessels. This makes the mother and child very sick. Unfortunately, we still do not know how this happens. We do know that Aspirin can reduce the risk of preeclampsia in some women, but exactly how this happens, is not known. Thus, in this study, we aim to understand this process better. To test this, we will use a rat model of preeclampsia. In this model, we will feed pregnant rats a control diet or high cholesterol diet during pregnancy (to mimic preeclampsia), and then treat the rats with Aspirin or vehicle. At the end of pregnancy, we will look at the function of the uterine arteries, the blood vessels that are responsible for supplying the uterus and placenta. We will measure their function by looking at how they respond to drugs that induce vasodilation or vasoconstriction. We will also use other laboratory techniques to try and understand the potential mechanisms for the impaired uterine artery function. This project will help us understand how very high cholesterol levels during pregnancy affect uterine artery function. We will also determine if treatment with Aspirin during pregnancy can improve vascular function in these blood vessels and ultimately improve pregnancy outcomes. These findings are a step towards developing new treatment options for women at high risk for pregnancy complications.