Impact of preeclampsia on cognitive function in the offspring

Diffusion Tensor Imaging of White Matter in Children Born from Preeclamptic Gestations

“…20 The PE-F1 deviations of increased brain regional volumes or globally reduced vascular diameters suggest that the legacy impact of PE occurred in regions associated with memory and visual spatial processing. 14,16 Our previous findings that the temporal lobe and right and left amygdalae in PE-F1 are larger than in control children were coincident with the larger DTI volume of white matter in 2 ROIs: the caudate nucleus and superior longitudinal fasciculus (Table).…”

“…Our pilot study suggested specific deficits in cognitive testing and in eye-movement control. 16 Initial volumetric analyses of brain anatomic regions by using high-resolution T1-weighted MR imaging datasets identified 5 regions of anatomic enlargement in PE-F1s (cerebellum, temporal lobe, left amygdala, right amygdala, and brain stem). In addition, reduced vascular radii were identified from time-of-flight MR angiography datasets in the occipital and parietal lobes.…”

A perspective on pre‐eclampsia and neurodevelopmental outcomes in the offspring: Does maternal inflammation play a role?

“…This cohort then underwent magnetic resonance (MR) imaging to identify any brain structural and vascular anatomic differences. While there were no significant differences in total intracranial brain volume between the control group and children from mothers exposed to pre‐eclampsia, the pre‐eclampsia group had significant larger regional brain volumes in five of twenty‐one regions analysed that included the cerebellum, temporal lobe, left amygdala, right amygdala and the brainstem (Ratsep et al, 2016). It is important to note however that there were no significant differences in gestational age (controls = 39.47 ± 1.38 weeks vs. pre‐eclampsia = 37.16 ± 3.34 weeks), there was a significant difference in birth weight (controls = 3.42 ± 0.36 kg vs. pre‐eclampsia = 2.67 ± 0.79 kg) in this study which may have confounded these results (Ratsep et al, 2016).…”

“…In future work it will also be important to examine neuroanatomical and neurobehavioural outcomes across the life span using multiple pre‐clinical models of pre‐eclampsia, and in clinical cohorts. While the longitudinal nature of these studies are challenging in humans, imaging and developmental assessments of adequately powered cohorts of offspring exposed to pre‐eclampsia and appropriate matched controls will be important given recent studies showing changes in the brains of pre‐eclampsia‐exposed offspring (Figueiro‐Filho et al, 2017; Ratsep et al, 2016). Combining this with animal modelling will allow the role of maternal inflammation and in particular IL‐6 as mediator of the association to be determined, using elegant approaches reported by Wu et al (Wu et al, 2017).…”

Influences of placental growth factor on mouse retinal vascular development

“…We recently reported changes in brain vascular and neurological structures in 8–10 year old PE‐F1s from magnetic resonance imaging and angiography data (Rätsep et al, ). Such alterations may underlie the cognitive changes (Rätsep et al, ) and gains in cerebrovascular risk experienced by PE‐F1s. Although many mechanisms including epigenetics, genetics, hypertension, environmental factors and in utero hypoxia subsequent to decreased placental perfusion have been proposed to account for the cerebrovascular changes in PE‐F1s, insufficient angiogenic factor production by the developing fetus could also contribute (Davis et al, ).…”