New Discovery Links Pregnancy-Related Substances to Preeclampsia
2011 Vision Grant recipient Dr. Nihar Nayak has published his work with sFLT-1, a protein related to blood vessel development in the early part of pregnancy and strongly implicated in the vascular dysfunction associated with preeclampsia. Published in the well-respected Journal of Clinical Investigation, Nayak's team discovers that another pregnancy related substance, VEGF, is responsible for triggering the overproduction of the much-discussed sFLT-1. However, the findings show that sFlt1 can actually help to protect the fetus by "sequestering" excess VEGF, even though this is dangerous for the mother.
You can read about his original Vision Grant research on our website.
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