SRI Supplement to Reproductive Sciences - Volume 25 Number 1 - March 2018 - 223A

Scientific Abstracts

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Relaxation Sensitivity of Uterine Artery for CGRP Family Peptides
is Greater with Pregnancy in Women. Madhu Chauhan, Anciza
Betancourt, Meena Balakrishnan, Jimmy Espinoza, Matthew Anderson,
Michael Belfort, Chandrasekhar Yallampalli. Baylor College of Medicine/
Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX, United States.
INTRODUCTION: In rats uterine artery (UTA) relaxation reponses
to hypotensive peptides. calcitonin gene related peptide (CGRP),
adrenomedullin (ADM) and adrenomedullin2 (ADM2) is greater with
pregnancy. This is accompanied with increased expression of their receptor
components calcitonin receptor like receptor (CRLR) and receptor activity
modifying proteins (RAMP1,2 and 3) in UTA. In this study we assessed
if similar preganacy related changes also occur in the human UTA.
METHODS: Study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston. Uterine arteries were collected
from non-pregnant women (n=8) undergoing hysterectomy or from
pregnant normotensive women undergoing cesarean hysterectomy at ≥
32 weeks due to abnormal placental implantation (n=9). The UTA were
cleaned, cut into rings and mounted on a wire myograph for isometric
tension recording or flash frozen for RNA extraction. For contractility
studies, rings were pre-contracted with U46619 (1µM), and cumulative
dose-response relaxation curves were constructed for CGRP, ADM and
ADM2 (0.1nM - 100nM), and for bradykinin (BK, 0.1nM - 1µM) as
percent inhibition of U46619 induced contraction. Expression of mRNA
for receptor components CRLR and RAMP1, 2, and 3 in UTA were

223A

assessed by Real-time QPCR. All data are presented as mean ± SEM.
Repeated measures ANOVA (treatment and time as factors) with a
Bonferroni post hoc were used for comparisons of dose response curves
between non-pregnant and pregnant groups. Statistical significance was
defined as P < 0.05.
RESULTS: 1) BK causes dose-dependent relaxation of UTA from both
non-pregnant and pregnant women (P<0.05); 2) Relaxation response
to CGRP, ADM, was minimal in UTA from non-pregnant women ; 3)
Vasodilatory responses (Emax) of UTA for CGRP (85.53± 2.38, p<0.001),
ADM (58.87 ± 2.87) and ADM2 (57.47 ± 3.64) were significantly greater
in pregnant women compared to non-pregnant [CGRP(3.88± 3.18]; ADM
(0.08±1.37) and ADM2 (11.01±3.09), p<0.001]; and 4) CRLR and RAMPs
are expressed in uterine artery.
CONCLUSION: Expression of receptor components CRLR and RAMPs
in UTA and elevated relaxation responses of UTA for CGRP, ADM and
ADM2 suggests a potential role for these peptides in regulating fetomaternal hemodynamics in human pregnancy.

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Longitudinal Changes in Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV) during Normal
Human Pregnancy. Amelia M Schaub†, K-H Chiu, Y-Y Chi, J Liu, MD
Lingis, RS Williams, A Rhoton-Vlasak, WW Nichols, M S Segal, KP
Conrad. University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States.
INTRODUCTION: A number of reports demonstrate decreased PWV
during normal human pregnancy, consistent with the rise in global arterial
compliance (GAC). But, few studies were serially-designed studies in
which each woman served as her own control. Of these, virtually all used
post-partum values as the baseline rather than the pre-conception time
point, and most measured only carotid-femoral (cfPWV) or carotid-radial
PWV (crPWV), but not both. Moreover, a limited number of time points
during pregnancy were investigated in most of these studies. The objective
this study is to measure cfPWV and crPWV in the same women before
pregnancy, 6 times during pregnancy, and 6-15 months post-partum, in
order to define the precise pattern of arterial compliance change over time.
METHODS: This was a longitudinal study of 24 healthy women with
normal singleton pregnancies. cfPWV and crPWV were measured using
standard methods (SphygmoCor). Women were studied pre-conception
(follicular phase), gestational weeks 5-6, 7-9, 10-12, 14-16, 23-25, and
32-35, as well as 6-15 months post-partum.
RESULTS: An overall decline in cfPWV during pregnancy was more
consistently observed than for crPWV. Nevertheless, a significant decrease
was first noted at 7-9 gestational weeks for crPWV(P=0.017) and for
cfPWV (P=0.057) relative to pre-conception values (adj. P values, Holm's
method). The nadir for each was reached at 23-25 gestational weeks
(crPWV, p=0.015 and cfPWV, p<0.001 vs pre-conception). An overall
decline of 0.5 - 1 m/s was observed during pregnancy compared to preconception and post-partum time points.
*Figure(s) will be available online.
CONCLUSION: Normal human pregnancy was associated with a decline
in cfPWV and crPWV reaching significance by 7-9 gestational weeks. A
nadir of ~ 1m/s below pre-conception levels was observed for both cfPWV
and crPWV during the second trimester. These results demonstrate that
both the elastic and muscular arteries contribute to the overall gestational
increase in GAC. This serial study provides detailed normative data for
comparison to pathologic pregnancies.

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Global Arterial Compliance (GAC) and Wave Reflections during
Normal Human Pregnancy. Claudia Rodriguez†,3 Rajesh Mohandas,2
Yueh-Yun Chi,1 Kuei-Hsun Chiu†,1 Melissa Lingis,2 Stanley William,2
Alice Rhoton-Vlasak,2 Wilmer Nichols,2 Mark Segal,2 Kirk Conrad*.2
1
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States; 2University of
Florida COM, Gainesville, FL, United States; 3University of Florida
IFAS, Gainesville, FL, United States.
INTRODUCTION: Central aortic systolic blood pressure (CSP)
represents the true load imposed on the heart, kidney and brain. Reports
have shown that CSP and augmentation index (AIx@75) decline during
normal pregnancy consistent with increasing GAC.

Friday Posters

Impact of Continuous Maternal Life-Log Monitoring for Prediction
of Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy in Maternity Log Study.
Takafumi Yamauchi,1,2 Daisuke Ochi,1,2 Yoshiki Tsunemoto,1 Maiko
Wagata†,2 Riu Yamashita,2 Yuki Harada,2 Osamu Tanabe,2 Nobuo
Yaegashi,3 Satoshi Hiyama,1 Masao Nagasaki,2 Junichi Sugawara*.2
1
NTT DOCOMO, Inc., Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan; 2Tohoku University,
Sendai, Miyagi, Japan; 3Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine,
Sendai, Miyagi, Japan.
INTRODUCTION: Pregnancy complications including hypertensive
disorders of pregnancy (HDP) are multifactorial diseases caused by
complex interactions of genetic and environmental factors. Therefore,
analyses of both factors are important to develop methods of early
detection and prevention of such diseases. However, most of the previous
researches have used self-report questionnaires to collect information
on environmental factors, and had limitations in the frequency of data
acquisition and the objectivity of the information.
METHODS: We are conducting a prospective cohort study "Maternity
Log Study" of pregnant women. By using a smart phone and monitoring
devices, participants (n=302) upload daily life-logs including biometric
information on more than 20 items such as home blood pressure, as well
as lifestyle information on more than 10 items such as hours of sleep.
Furthermore, we collected specimens including blood, saliva, dental
plaque, and urine for multi-omics analyses. This study protocol obtained
approval from the ethics review committee established by Tohoku
University Graduate School of Medicine (ID 2014-1-704). In the present
study, we demonstrated differences in life-logs between an HDP (n=17)
and control (n=124) groups. Furthermore, prediction models for onset of
HDP was exhibited based on machine learning method.
RESULTS: We found significant differences in several items of life-logs
between the two groups. Interestingly, sleep quality of the HDP group was
stably and significantly poorer than the control group. In addition, HDP
group showed larger numbers of days with palpitation after 28 weeks of
gestation. Next, we established prediction models using several life-logs.
A leave-one-out cross-validation demonstrated the specificity of 0.82,
and the sensitivity of 0.88 at the 24 weeks. Moreover, we found that the
prediction models showed better performance, when increased numbers
of time-points of life-logs were used in the models.
CONCLUSION: By analyzing daily life-logs during pregnancy, we
identified candidate life-log predictors for HDP. These results may
contribute to the development of future monitoring service for pregnant
women to predict onset of HDP.

Reproductive Sciences Vol. 25, Supplement 1, March 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SRI Supplement to Reproductive Sciences - Volume 25 Number 1 - March 2018