Effects of normal and high circulating concentrations of activin A on vascular endothelial cell functions and vasoactive factor production

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Activin A, a TGFβ family member, circulates in the maternal blood at increasing concentrations throughout gestation during a healthy pregnancy. The circulating concentration of activin A is further increased in pre-eclampsia (PE), a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy that is marked by systemic maternal vascular endothelial cell dysfunction. The effect of increasing activin A concentrations on the maternal vascular endothelium is unknown. The study aim was to investigate the effect of physiological and pathological activin A concentrations observed in normotensive and PE pregnancies respectively, on vascular endothelial cell function. METHODS AND RESULTS: Immunostaining demonstrat..