Grant: Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death and includes a range of complications associated with abnormal function of blood vessels, which includes atherosclerosis, a condition where fat deposits develop in blood vessels. Women have sex-specific risk factors for cardiovascular disease, and the most notable is having had a pregnancy disorder. Preeclampsia is a pregnancy-specific syndrome that affects maternal cardiovascular health. Moreover, women with a history of preeclampsia are at high risk to suffer from high blood pressure later in life. Because cardiovascular disease is a major cause of women's demise worldwide, it is important to investigate the underlying mechanisms by which preeclampsia impacts maternal cardiovascular health over time and to find a potential therapy to prevent cardiovascular disease in these women. My study will evaluate potential mechanisms for the long-term effects of having had preeclampsia on maternal blood vessel function, and assess an intervention strategy. To evaluate the long-term effects of preeclampsia, I will use a mouse model of preeclampsia in which pregnant mice will be fed a high cholesterol diet (to generate dysfunction of the blood vessels) for the last trimester of gestation. Three months after pregnancy (equivalent to ~10 years in humans) signs of cardiovascular disease (such as blood vessel function and markers of atherosclerosis) will be evaluated. I will focus on a specific mechanism that we hypothesize plays a key role in cardiovascular dysfunction after pregnancy. Moreover, based on this mechanism, I will use our preeclampsia model to test a novel therapeutic approach to prevent cardiovascular disease later in life. The expected outcomes of this study include increasing our understanding of the mechanisms of cardiovascular disease in mothers who had preeclampsia and the development of a potential targeted therapeutic to restore/improve maternal cardiovascular health later in life.