|
There is evidence
to support that. I’ll show you some very interesting pictures of implantation
abnormalities in preeclampsia. It’s associated with diseases that usually have
microvascular changes associated with them, such as diabetes, and hypertension. So maybe
vascular changes to the uterus or placenta is the problem. If you have a really large
placenta - I mentioned the hydatidiform mole, which is all placenta and no baby - but you
could also have very big placentas with twins or very big placentas with some baby
diseases. The thought here is that all of these bring increased risk of preeclampsia; the
placentas are just so big that there is a relative reduction of perfusion, to support that
hypothesis. There’s some pretty good evidence that there is reduced perfusion in
preeclampsia. Animal models for preeclampsia are a major problem, but if you use them for
hypothesis testing you can in several different species reduce blood supply to the
placenta and get something that looks like preeclampsia. |