Two prominent visiting professors will visit the Wayne State University School of Medicine on Aug. 16 to present the latest information on preeclampsia in "New Concepts and Developments in Preeclampsia: An Enigmatic Cause of Maternal and Neonatal Morbidity and Mortality."
Christopher Redman, M.B., MChir, M.A., FRCP, professor emeritus of the Nuffield Department of Reproduction and Women's Health, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford University (United Kingdom), and Annetine Staff, M.D., Ph.D., professor of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Oslo, and head of Research in the Division of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Oslo University Hospital, will speak from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Perinatology Research Branch Conference Room, located at 4 Brush.
Dr. Redman has made seminal contributions to the understanding of preeclampsia, and has invented methods to assess fetal well-being. His career contributions are many, and include more than 450 peer-reviewed publications. A few highlights include:
• The first randomized clinical trial of anti-hypertensive medication in pregnant women, with a follow-up of several years, published in The Lancet.
• Description of placental syncytia microparticles being deported during normal pregnancy and in patients with preeclampsia.
• The discovery that normal pregnancy is characterized by a state of intravascular inflammation, akin to sepsis in non-pregnant subjects, and that this is exaggerated in preeclampsia.
• Invention of a new method to monitor pregnancy using computerized cardiotocography.
• Description of abnormal immune interactions between mother and fetus (HLA-C-KIR receptor interactions).
• Multiple major contributions to the understanding of the biology and immunology of the human placenta, including the discovery of non-classical HLA antigens expressed by trophoblast.
Dr. Redman will present "New Concepts on the Pathophysiology of Preeclampsia." He has written an article for Science about the subject.
Dr. Staff is an intellectual leader in the area of preeclampsia, and has published more than 175 peer-reviewed papers. Her recent studies have focused on atherosis, among other topics:
• The relationship between acute atherosis and maternal KIR-B and fetal HLA-C2 in the decidua basalis, JRI 2018.
• The role of angiogenic and anti-angiogenic factors as biomarkers for preeclampsia, UOG 2018.
• Is the placenta responsible for seizures in eclampsia, Hypertension 2018.
• The genetic basis for preeclampsia - the endoglin pathway, Pregnancy Hypertension 2018.
• Dysregulation of circulating autoantibodies against VEGF-A, VEGFR-1 and PlGF in preeclampsia, Pregnancy Hypertension 2017.
• Disturbed placental imprinting in preeclampsia leading to altered expression of DLX5, Circulation 2017.
• Development of vacuum suction biopsies to characterize the decidua basalis in normal pregnancy and preeclampsia.
• Natural killer cell reduction and uteroplacental vasculopathy, Hypertension, 2016.
• Placental endoplasmic reticulum stress in gestational diabetes: the potential for therapeutic intervention.
• Placental macrophage-trophoblastic interactions in preeclampsia, Circulation Research 2016.
Dr. Staff will present "Circulating maternal biomarkers in preeclampsia: Do they fit with updated preeclampsia pathophysiology models?" and "Preeclampsia and increased risk of maternal cardiovascular disease: New ideas for mechanisms and biomarkers of risk."