Grant: Project Grant

In Canada, a consistent trend for many years has been an increasing age of pregnant people. In fact, the number of babies born to Canadian people 35-39 was double that of people 20-24 in 2019. But pregnant people over the age of 35 are more likely to suffer from infertility, miscarriage, and dangerous pregnancy complications like preeclampsia. Recent studies have tied decreased fertility and increased pregnancy complications in advanced age pregnancies to the improper development of the pregnancy-specific uterine lining. This lining is called the decidua. The growth of blood vessels in the uterus is an essential part of decidua formation. We propose that inadequate growth of uterine blood vessels may occur in advanced age pregnancies and contribute to the problems with decidual formation. But very little is known about how these blood vessels grow. In this project we will use human uterine blood vessel cells and mouse models to understand how uterine blood vessels grow in pregnancy. We will also examine if poor blood vessel growth exists in advanced age pregnancies. Therefore, this knowledge could be used in the future to develop treatments to help decrease the risk associated with pregnancy at older ages.