Study of heart function in PRE-Eclampsia during and after PreGnancy (SHePREG): The pilot cohort.

Background: Pre-eclampsia with severe features (severe PreE) is associated with heart dysfunction, yet the impact beyond pregnancy, including its association with cardiomyopathic genetic polymorphisms, remains poorly understood.

Objective: We aimed to characterize the temporal impact of severe PreE on heart function through the 4th trimester in women with and without deleterious cardiomyopathic genetic variants.

Methods: Pregnant women were enrolled to undergo transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) in late pregnancy and 3 months postpartum.

A critical role for erythropoietin on vagus nerve Schwann cells in intestinal motility.

Background: Dysmotility and postoperative ileus (POI) are frequent major clinical problems post-abdominal surgery. Erythropoietin (EPO) is a multifunctional tissue-protective cytokine that promotes recovery of the intestine in various injury models. While EPO receptors (EPOR) are present in vagal Schwann cells, the role of EPOR in POI recovery is unknown because of the lack of EPOR antagonists or Schwann-cell specific EPOR knockout animals.