Written with the help of AI from a news release from Wright State University.
A Wright State University team led by researcher Thomas L. Brown, Ph.D., says it has identified what may be driving severe early-onset preeclampsia, a condition that can begin as early as 20 weeks into pregnancy and cause dangerous spikes in blood pressure, according to the university.
The researchers found that women with the severe early-onset form have far more circulating extracellular vesicles, tiny particles released by cells, than women with healthy pregnancies. In laboratory testing, blood vessel dysfunction linked to preeclampsia disappeared when the particle levels were reduced to normal. A tenfold reduction was needed to restore normal function, the team found.
The team isolated vesicles from the blood of healthy pregnant women and from women with severe early-onset preeclampsia and applied them to endothelial cells, which line blood vessels. Vesicles from healthy pregnancies allowed normal vessel formation, while those from preeclamptic patients did not. The problem appeared to come from how many vesicles were circulating rather than what they carried. The findings were published in the journal Hypertension and selected for its September cover.
Wright State said the study did not establish a treatment. Brown’s team is pursuing an early-stage method to remove excess vesicles from a patient’s blood instead of using medication. The goal is to safely extend pregnancies past 34 weeks, when outcomes for mother and baby improve significantly.
Physicians at Premier Health and in Wright State’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology obtain patient consent and collect blood samples, which Brown’s lab analyzes. Scout Bowman-Gibson, a dual M.D./Ph.D. student in the Boonshoft School of Medicine, based her dissertation on the study. David Dhanraj, M.D., chair of the obstetrics and gynecology department, said he hopes that research like this "could lead to actual treatments to prevent or reverse preeclampsia."
Read the full release from Wright State University.
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