Angiogenesis<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cThis new finding gives us baseline levels of this protein in a healthy, developing placenta,\u201d says Audra Barnes-Lanier, a former graduate research assistant in Chappell\u2019s lab and the paper\u2019s first author. \u201cWe found that it is oxygen sensitive and may potentially serve as a new therapeutic target for pregnancy disorders such as preeclampsia.\u201d<\/p>\n
The discovery challenges the established belief that the protein\u2014soluble platelet-derived growth factor receptor beta, or sR-beta\u2014is merely a biomarker of pericyte cell death in the brain.<\/p>\n
Chappell\u2019s research found the protein isn\u2019t just present during pericyte death, but during vascular development, as well. Pericyte cells help provide structure to blood vessels. Determining the protein\u2019s function in the placenta is the next aim.<\/p>\n
\u201cNature doesn\u2019t put cells anywhere unless it\u2019s on purpose. We believe sR-beta is likely involved in some sort of pathway modulation, to keep pericyte development in check,\u201d says Chappell, who also holds an appointment in Virginia Tech\u2019s biomedical engineering department in the College of Engineering.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to know what causes it to be mis-regulated in its production. And then, if it becomes misregulated during gestation, what does that mean for pregnancy outcomes?\u201d<\/p>\n
He believes that too much or not enough of the protein could negatively impact neurovascular development in the brain, causing both acute and chronic problems in the developing baby.<\/p>\n
The effects, Chappell hypothesizes, could include brain bleeds, a potentially life-threatening condition in which blood vessels leak or rupture, and retinopathy, eye damage from inadequate blood flow.<\/p>\n
The lab has more to learn about the protein and its role, but Chappell believes its first potential clinical use could be as a biomarker that could alert doctors to potential neurodevelopmental issues.<\/p>\n
A richer understanding of the protein and its function, Chappell says, could point to therapeutic targets to prevent or limit those neurodevelopmental problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next step of this project is to investigate how this protein changes during placental distress,\u201d Barnes-Lanier says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of work to do,\u201d Chappell says, \u201cbut this is an important finding that changes the understanding of the location and purpose of this protein, and it sheds much-needed light on the placenta, which is important to the mother\u2019s well-being and sets the stage for a baby\u2019s lifelong health.\u201d<\/p>\n
The research was funded by a grant from the Seale Innovation Fund at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute.<\/p>\n
Source: Virginia Tech<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Share this Article You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.0 International license. Researchers have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[29133,163,85,46,62585],"class_list":["post-662983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-brains","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-placenta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}