Fetomaternal Cardiovascular and Renal Adverse Outcomes of Recurrent Preeclampsia in Rats.

Preeclampsia (PE) is a serious pregnancy-related disorder associated with considerable maternal and neonatal morbidity. Preeclamptic women have increased risk of PE recurrency during subsequent pregnancies. Clinically, recurrent PE is accompanied by more frequent maternal and fetal complications compared with the initial PE episode. Here, we investigated the impact of recurrent PE episode on the cardiovascular and renal profiles of female rats and their offspring. PE was induced by oral L-NAME administration (50 mg/kg/day, gestation days 14-21) for either single pregnancy or two consecutive pregnancies. Maternal and fetal abnormalities were compared with corresponding pregnancy controls. Recurrent and single PE caused similar increases in systolic blood pressure of mothers over last week of pregnancy and decreases in average weight of pubs. However, recurrent PE was associated with new onset elevation in renovascular reactivity to vasoconstrictors (phenylephrine and angiotensin II) compared with normal renal vasoconstriction in single PE dams. By contrast, the single, but not recurrent, PE was coupled with renal hypo-reactivity to acetylcholine vasodilations. Examination of male and female progenies of single PE mothers revealed significant rises in blood pressure and renal vasodilatory dysfunction in female, but not male, offspring. Nevertheless, the attenuation in renovascular responsiveness to phenylephrine and angiotensin II was noted in both genders. Collectively, these data indicate that recurrent PE is associated with alleviation of single PE renal vasodilatory impairment as well as new onset hyperreactivity to vasoconstrictors. The results also highlight sexual dimorphism in the impact of PE on cardiovascular and renal profiles of the progeny. Future studies will be conducted to assess whether such sex-related differences persist in the offspring of recurrent PE mothers.