Pre-eclampsia , a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy , affects 5 to 7% of pregnancies. Oxidative stress-induced placental injury and subsequent release of placental debris into the maternal circulation are key pathogenic events in the progression of pre-eclampsia. Women who smoke cigarettes throughout pregnancy are 33% less likely to develop this disorder than nonsmoking women. We postulated that elevated carbon monoxide concentrations in serum of smoking women inhibits apoptosis and debris shedding of trophoblast cells exposed to ischemia-reperfusion injury because carbon monoxide has cytoprotective effects on endothelial and smooth muscle cells in culture. This may be responsible for the reduced risk of preeclampsia in smoking women. To assess the cytoprotective properties of carbon monoxide within placental tissue , carbon monoxide treatments were administered to in vitro hypoxia/reoxygenation-insulted villous explants cultured from term human placenta. Induction of apoptosis was assessed using molecular and morphological approaches. Placental villous explants treated with carbon monoxide demonstrated 60% less hypoxia/reoxygenation-induced apoptosis in the differentiated syncytiotrophoblast layer compared with untreated explants undergoing a similar insult. In addition , retention of intact syncytial membranes was observed in carbon monoxide-treated explants. These observations indicate that carbon monoxide has potent antiapoptotic properties within human placenta and may hold therapeutic potential in the treatment of pre

The effects of a high cholesterol, high saturated fat diet on serum high density lipoprotein cholesterol, apo A-I, and apo E levels were studied in six normolipidemic subjects. The study was done on an outpatient basis and mixed natural foods normally consumed by humans were used. When compared with a low cholesterol (98 mg/day) high polyunsaturated fat (P/S ratio 1.6) diet, the high cholesterol (1021 mg/day), high saturated fat (P/S ratio 0.4) diet increased serum cholesterol (23%) by raising the cholesterol concentration in very low-density lipoproteins (59%), low-density lipoproteins (15%), and high-density lipoproteins (30%). The low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol ratio fell significantly from 1.78 to 1.58. The increased high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol was associated with an elevation of serum apo A-I but not apo E. Serum triglycerides did not change significantly.

Preeclampsia is a disease of human pregnancy characterized by a systemic maternal inflammatory response associated with endothelial dysfunction, hypertension, and proteinuria. This condition affects 5 to 7% of all pregnancies and is the main cause of perinatal mortality and morbidity in developed countries. There is also evidence that the risk of subsequent cardiovascular disease is significantly increased in women affected by preeclamptic pregnancies.

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