Enhanced Vascular Smooth Muscle Calcium Sensitivity and Loss of Endothelial Vasodilator Influence Contribute to Myogenic Tone Development in Rat Radial Uterine Arteries during Gestation

Guidelines for assessing maternal cardiovascular physiology during pregnancy and postpartum

Maternal mortality rates are at an all-time high across the world and are set to increase in subsequent years. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death during pregnancy and postpartum, especially in the United States. Therefore, understanding the physiological changes in the cardiovascular system during normal pregnancy is necessary to understand disease-related pathology. Significant systemic and cardiovascular physiological changes occur during pregnancy that are essential for supporting the maternal-fetal dyad. The physiological impact of pregnancy on the cardiovascular system has been examined in both experimental animal models and in humans. However, there is a continued need in this field of study to provide increased rigor and reproducibility. Therefore, these guidelines aim to provide information regarding best practices and recommendations to accurately and rigorously measure cardiovascular physiology during normal and cardiovascular disease-complicated pregnancies in human and animal models.

Perivascular Adipose Tissue and Uterine Artery Adaptations to Pregnancy

Pregnancy is characterized by longitudinal maternal, physiological adaptations to support the development of a fetus. One of the cardinal maternal adaptations during a healthy pregnancy is a progressive increase in uterine artery blood flow. This facilitates sufficient blood supply for the development of the placenta and the growing fetus. Regional hemodynamic changes in the uterine circulation, such as a vast reduction in uterine artery resistance, are mainly facilitated by changes in uterine artery reactivity and myogenic tone along with remodeling of the uterine arteries. These regional changes in vascular reactivity have been attributed to pregnancy-induced adaptations of cell-to-cell communication mechanisms, with an emphasis on the interaction between endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells. Perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) is considered the fourth layer of the vascular wall and contributes to the regulation of vascular reactivity in most vascular beds and most species. This review focuses on mechanisms of uterine artery reactivity and the role of PVAT in pregnancy-induced maternal vascular adaptations, with an emphasis on the uterine circulation.

The L-NAME mouse model of preeclampsia and impact to long-term maternal cardiovascular health

Preeclampsia affects ∼2–8% of pregnancies worldwide. It is associated with increased long-term maternal cardiovascular disease risk. This study assesses the effect of the vasoconstrictor N(ω)-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) in modelling preeclampsia in mice, and its long-term effects on maternal cardiovascular health. In this study, we found that L-NAME administration mimicked key characteristics of preeclampsia, including elevated blood pressure, impaired fetal and placental growth, and increased circulating endothelin-1 (vasoconstrictor), soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (anti-angiogenic factor), and C-reactive protein (inflammatory marker). Post-delivery, mice that received L-NAME in pregnancy recovered, with no discernible changes in measured cardiovascular indices at 1-, 2-, and 4-wk post-delivery, compared with matched controls. At 10-wk post-delivery, arteries collected from the L-NAME mice constricted significantly more to phenylephrine than controls. In addition, these mice had increased kidney Mmp9:Timp1 and heart Tnf mRNA expression, indicating increased inflammation. These findings suggest that though administration of L-NAME in mice certainly models key characteristics of preeclampsia during pregnancy, it does not appear to model the adverse increase in cardiovascular disease risk seen in individuals after preeclampsia.

The role of nitric oxide in flow-induced and myogenic responses in 1A, 2A, and 3A branches of the porcine middle cerebral artery

Myogenic and flow-induced reactivity contribute to cerebral autoregulation, with potentially divergent roles for smaller versus larger arteries. The present study tested the hypotheses that compared with first-order (1A) branches of the middle cerebral artery, second- and third-order branches (2A and 3A, respectively) exhibit greater myogenic reactivity but reduced flow-induced constriction. Furthermore, nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibition may amplify myogenic reactivity and abolish instances of flow-induced dilation. Isolated porcine cerebral arteries mounted in a pressure myograph were exposed to incremental increases in intraluminal pressure (40-120 mmHg; n = 41) or flow (1-1,170 µL/min; n = 31). Intraluminal flows were adjusted to achieve 5, 10, 20, and 40 dyn/cm2 of wall shear stress at 60 mmHg. Myogenic tone was greater in 3A versus 1A arteries (P < 0.05). There was an inverse relationship between myogenic reactivity and passive arterial diameter (P < 0.01). NOS inhibition increased basal tone to a lesser extent in 3A versus 1A arteries (P < 0.01) but did not influence myogenic reactivity (P = 0.49). Increasing flow decreased luminal diameter (P ≤ 0.01), with increased vasoconstriction at 10-40 dyn/cm2 of shear stress (P < 0.01). However, relative responses were similar between 1A, 2A, and 3A arteries (P = 0.40) with and without NOS inhibition conditions (P ≥ 0.29). Whereas NOS inhibition increases basal myogenic tone, and myogenic reactivity was less in smaller versus larger arteries (range = ∼100-550 µM), neither NOS inhibition nor luminal diameter influences flow-induced constriction in porcine cerebral arteries.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study demonstrated size-dependent heterogeneity in myogenic reactivity in porcine cerebral arteries. Smaller branches of the middle cerebral artery exhibited increased myogenic reactivity, but attenuated NOS-dependent increases in myogenic tone compared with larger branches. Flow-dependent regulation does not exhibit the same variation; diameter-independent flow-induced vasoconstrictions occur across all branch orders and are not affected by NOS inhibition. Conceptually, flow-induced vasoconstriction contributes to cerebral autoregulation, particularly in larger arteries with low myogenic tone.

Advanced Maternal Age Impairs Uterine Artery Adaptations to Pregnancy in Rats

Advanced maternal age (≥35 years) is associated with pregnancy complications. Aging impairs vascular reactivity and increases vascular stiffness. We hypothesized that uterine artery adaptations to pregnancy are impaired with advanced age. Uterine arteries of nonpregnant and pregnant (gestational day 20) young (4 months) and aged (9 months; ~35 years in humans) Sprague-Dawley rats were isolated. Functional (myogenic tone, n = 6−10/group) and mechanical (circumferential stress-strain, n = 10−24/group) properties were assessed using pressure myography and further assessment of elastin and collagen (histology, n = 4−6/group), and matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2, zymography, n = 6/group). Aged dams had worse pregnancy outcomes, including smaller litters and fetal weights (both p < 0.0001). Only in arteries of pregnant young dams did higher pressures (>100 mmHg) cause forced vasodilation. Across the whole pressure range (4−160 mmHg), myogenic behavior was enhanced in aged vs. young pregnant dams (p = 0.0010). Circumferential stress and strain increased with pregnancy in young and aged dams (p < 0.0001), but strain remained lower in aged vs. young dams (p < 0.05). Arteries from young nonpregnant rats had greater collagen:elastin ratios than the other groups (p < 0.05). In aged rats only, pregnancy increased MMP-2 active capacity. Altered functional and structural vascular adaptations to pregnancy may impair fetal growth and development with advanced maternal age.

Predicting pregnancy specific uterine vascular reactivity: A data driven computational model of shear-dependent, myogenic, and mechanical radial artery features

The entire maternal circulation adapts to pregnancy, and this adaption is particularly extensive in the uterine circulation where the major vessels double in size to facilitate an approximately 15-fold increase in blood supply to this organ over the course of pregnancy. Several factors may play a role in both the remodelling and biomechanical function of the uterine vasculature including the paracrine microenvironment, passive properties of the vessel wall, and active components of vascular function (incorporating the myogenic response and response to shear stress induced by intravascular blood flow). However, the interplay between these factors, and how this plays out in an organ-specific manner to induce the extent of remodelling observed in the uterus is not well understood. Here we present an integrated assessment of the uterine radial arteries, likely rate-limiters to flow of oxygenated maternal blood to the placental surface, via computational modelling and pressure myography. We show that uterine radial arteries behave differently to other systemic vessels (higher compliance and shear mediated constriction) and that their properties change with the adaptation to pregnancy (higher myogenic tone, higher compliance, and ability to tolerate higher flow rates before constricting). Together, this provides a useful tool to improve our understanding of the role of uterine vascular adaptation in normal and abnormal pregnancies and highlights the need for vascular bed specific investigations of vascular function in health and disease.