Huvec: an Experimental Model to Test the Hypothesis that Infection is the Leading Cause of Preeclampsia

During normal pregnancy, endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) is believed to play an important role in lowering peripheral vascular resistance (Silacci et al. 2000),while in preeclampsia (PE), characterised by pregnancy induced hypertension and proteinuria, there is a lack of vasodilation probably due to a reduced eNOS expression (Seligman et al. 1996). In PE we have found serological evidence of infection (high WBC count, high ferritin and low transferrin) (Todros et al. 2000) and several Authors observed an alteration of other markers of an infectious status (i.e: neopterin and C-reactive protein) (Haeger et al. 1992;Teran et al. 2001).Our objective was to test in vitro the hypothesis that infection negatively affects eNOS expression.