The maternal systemic disorder of widespread endothelial dysfunction is a primary focus in understanding the development of preeclampsia. sFlt-1 (soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase receptor 1), an endogenous inhibitor of VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor), may play important roles in endothelial dysfunction. The present study aimed to determine whether hypoxic trophoblast-derived sFlt-1 could lead to endothelial dysfunction by establishing a cocultured model of anoxic TEV-1s (human first-trimester extravillous trophoblasts) and HUVECs (human umbilical vein endothelial cells). The results showed that the hypoxic treatment significantly promoted sFlt-1 mRNA and protein expression in TEV-1s in a time-dependent manner compared with the effect in HUVECs. When HUVECs were cocultured with anoxic TEV-1s, the endothelial function, which was characterized by NO (nitric oxide) synthesis and monolayer barrier function of HUVECs, were notably decreased, accompanied by increasing sFlt-1 and decreasing VEGF in cell-conditioned medium. Moreover, the observed endothelial dysfunction described above was consistent with the dysfunction observed in VEGF siRNA-treated cultures. The findings presented herein imply that chronically hypoxic trophoblasts may release sufficient sFlt-1 to cause endothelial dysfunction by depriving cells of VEGF activity.
Coronavirus disease 2019 arises from infection with the new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). [1] The susceptible population can be of any age and gender; thus, the disease threatens the health and life of everyone, including pregnant women. Pregnancy can influence the physiological function of various organs, and thus may affect the prognosis of many infectious diseases. For example, higher mortality rates and more complications were reported in pregnant patients infected with SARS-CoV than those in non-pregnant patients. [2] Clinical manifestations and treatment monitoring of pregnant women with COVID-19 have been reported in previous studies, [3] which mainly focus on maternal and neonatal outcomes by analyzing small sample size data, but studies regarding the influence of pregnancy on the progression and prognosis of COVID-19 remain relatively rare. In this study, we retrospectively analyzed clinical data from women of childbearing age with COVID-19 at Tongji Hospital to explore the impact of pregnancy on the progression of COVID-19 and provide a theoretical basis for the effective diagnosis and treatment of pregnant women with COVID-19.In this retrospective, single-center cohort study, we recruited childbearing-aged women with COVID-19 pneumonia admitted to Tongji Hospital
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