Sildenafil Treatment Ameliorates the Maternal Syndrome of Preeclampsia and Rescues Fetal Growth in the Dahl Salt-Sensitive Rat.

Preeclampsia, a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy, is detrimental to both mother and fetus. There is currently no effective treatment, but sildenafil, a phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitor, has been proposed as a potential therapy to reduce blood pressure and improve uteroplacental perfusion in preeclamptic patients. We hypothesized that sildenafil would improve the maternal syndrome and fetal outcomes in the Dahl S rat model of superimposed preeclampsia.

The Dahl salt-sensitive rat is a spontaneous model of superimposed preeclampsia.

The mechanisms of the pathogenesis of preeclampsia, a leading cause of maternal morbidity and death worldwide, are poorly understood in part due to a lack of spontaneous animal models of the disease. We hypothesized that the Dahl salt-sensitive (S) rat, a genetic model of hypertension and kidney disease, is a spontaneous model of superimposed preeclampsia. The Dahl S was compared with the Sprague-Dawley (SD) rat, a strain with a well-characterized normal pregnancy, and the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR), a genetic model of hypertension that does not experience a preeclamptic phenotype despite preexisting hypertension.