Cold-stress stimulates pregnancy-induced hypertension syndrome in pregnant rats / 第三军医大学学报

ABSTRACT

Objective　To determine whether cold-stress stimulation could lead to pregnancy-induced hypertension syndrome (PIH) in rats. Methods　Female adult Wistar female rats were randomly divided into 4 groups non-pregnant control group (NN), non-pregnant cold-stress group (NC), pregnant control group (PN) and pregnant cold-stress group (PC). The rats were kept in (4±2) ℃ for 4 h (cold-stress groups) every day or remained in 25 ℃ (control groups) from the 1 st day to 19 th day of pregnancy. The blood pressure, urine protein, body weight, haematocrit (HCT), weight of placenta, length and weight of fetus were all measured. The histological change of the placenta and kidneys were also observed. Results　After cold-stress stimulation for 2 weeks, the blood pressure, urine protein in NC and PC group increased significantly compared with that in control group, while the weight of placenta and fetus, the length of fetus in PC decreased significantly than that in PN. Obvious ischemic and anoxic histological changes in kidneys and all layers of placenta were found in PC group. Conclusion　Repeated cold-stress stimulation can induce PIH in rats, thus provide a new non-invasive method to establish an animal model of PIH.