Poster 37
Presenter: Jasmin Kristianto
Wednesday, 3:00 – 5:00pm
Jasmin Kristianto, Jing Wu, Shannon Phillips, Jacqueline Fisher, Suzanne Litscher, Han Syuk Cho, Robert Blank University of Wisconsin Madison
Preeclampsia (~8% of all pregnancies), fetal loss (~15% of all pregnancies) and intrauterine growth restriction (~10% of newborns) are common pregnancy complications. Our laboratory has isolated a pleiotropic quantitative trait locus (QTL) in mouse chromosome 4 in recombinant congenic mice (HcB-8 and HcB-23) that harbors differentially expressed Ece1 (the gene encoding ECE1) alleles resulting in differences in reproductive performance. Recent data in 2 newly created congenic strains in which the QTL has been isolated are consistent with those obtained in HcB-8 and HcB-23. Long Chromosome 4 congenic (C4C-L) 17.5 dpc females have smaller litter sizes than C3H females (5 ± 1.5 v 7 ± 1.5, respectively, p = 0.034), but heavier placental weight relative to C3H 17.5 dpc females (0.126 ± 0.117 v 0.108 ± 0.103, respectively, p = 0.009) with no significant difference in 17.5 dpc embryos weight. These findings suggest the possible differences in placental efficiency between C4C-L and C3H mice. There are no significant differences observed between short chromosome 4 congenic (C4C) and C3H females. Doppler ultrasonography embryonic measurements of 17.5 dpc females show that C4C-L embryos have slower umbilical vein velocity than C3H embryos (145.6 ± 29.7 v 219.9 ± 40.3, respectively, p = 0.025). The embryonic heart rate is also slower in both C4C and C4C-L embryos relative to the C3H embryos (169 ± 33, 204 ± 41.8 v 315.8 ± 64.5, respectively, p = 0.016 (C4C v C3H), p = 0.027 (C4C-L v C3H). These data suggest that the chromosome 4 QTL mediates important differences in reproductive performance