Maternal immune changes in the postpartum period in uncomplicated pregnancies vs preeclampsia 3000

Abstract Description Preeclampsia (PE) is a complication of pregnancy characterized by de novo hypertension after 20 weeks of gestation with end-organ damage. Even though symptoms of PE rapidly resolve after delivery, patients have higher incidence of cardiovascular diseases in the years postpartum. Immunological changes have been observed in PE but it is unknown if these are sustained in the postpartum period. Our goal was to address the immune changes in the first year postpartum in PE as compared to normotensive (NT) as well as nulliparous women. We saw that both PE and NT pregnancies had altered immune system, especially decreased CD14+ monocytes and increased circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines when compared to nulliparous patients even one year after delivery. Furthermore, our intracellular cytokine staining analysis following stimulation suggest altered response in the postpartum period in PE with a predominant anti-inflammatory response vs NT. Overall this work suggest that the immune system remains different from nulliparous women at 1 year postpartum, even in cases of normotensive pregnancies, and is further altered following PE-complicated pregnancies. Although further analysis is ongoing, this shows that the immune system does not go back to pre-pregnancy levels in the postpartum period and that changes induced by pregnancy are at least in part sustained. We will further expand this work to address the functional changes in immune cells and the mechanisms underlying these changes. Topic Categories Mucosal and Regional Immunology (MUC)