Anti-Qa2 animal models for preeclampsia preclinical studies: A pathological elevation of blood pressure and proteinuria

Preeclampsia is the worldwide leading cause of fetomaternal morbidity and mortality indicated by increased blood pressure and proteinuria as major clinical manifestations. Although it begins with the formation of poor placentation and endothelial dysfunction, the prevention and treatment of preeclampsia still requires extensive research. We hypothesized that injections of anti-Qa2 administered during early mouse pregnancy can serve as an animal model for preeclampsia research and show the elevation of blood pressure and proteinuria associated with preeclampsia. A randomized experimental study (pretest-posttest control group design) used twenty pregnant BALB/c mice, in which the treatment group (n=10) was injected intraperitoneally with anti-Qa2 on the first through the fourth day of gestation. In this study, Qa-2 acted as a HLA-G homolog and the injection of anti-Qa2 in the first trimester led to inadequate placentation as reflected in human preeclampsia, increased systolic and diastolic blood pressure, proteinuria, placental TNFα expressions, sFlt-1 serum levels and the restriction of fetal growth with a decrease in fetal weight and length as well as placental weight (p < 0.05). The findings suggest that the injection of anti-Qa2 in mice can be used as a validated and comprehensive preeclampsia animal model and can be used to investigate potential therapeutic interventions for preeclampsia treatment or prevention.