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Recording available 2/16-5/2

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Poster Session 3

Category: Hypertension

Poster Session 3

(714) Adverse miRNA and Protein Profiles Following Hypertensive Compared to Normotensive Pregnancy

Thursday, February 12, 2026

10:30 AM - 12:00 PM

Submitting Author and Presenting Author(s)

Allen Ghareeb, MD

Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellow
University of Washington
University of Washington - Seattle, Washington, United States

Coauthor(s)

JM

James MacDonald

University of Washington
University of Washington, Washington, United States
TB

Theo Bammler

University of Washington
University of Washington, Washington, United States
SR

Shree Raj, MD

University of Washington
University of Washington, Washington, United States

Objective:
To identify differential microRNA (miRNA) expression in non-pregnant individuals with and without history of a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy (HDP) and correlate this with previously measured inflammatory and cardiovascular disease (CVD)-associated proteins in the same cohort.

Study Design:
We conducted a case-control study analyzing miRNA expression of 20 individuals with HDP history and 39 without HDP history. Peripheral blood was collected at a median of 4 years from the most recent pregnancy, and plasma was isolated using standard spin techniques. miRNA was extracted, libraries were prepared with unique molecular identifiers, and samples were sequenced in a single-end mode, 75 bp reads. Transcripts were aligned to Homo Sapiens transcripts (miRBase v22). Data quality was assessed using multi-dimensional scaling.

Results:
There were no significant demographic differences between groups. Approximately 15 million reads per sample were generated with high quality scores. Using a false discovery rate of <0.1, we identified 26 differentially expressed miRNAs between the two cohorts (4 down-regulated, 22 up-regulated), many of which are implicated in hypertension or other CVDs (e.g., miR-200, miR-10a-5p, miR-3192-5p, let-7 family). Certain differentially expressed miRNAs relevant to cardiovascular (CV) conditions were significantly associated with CVD-associated proteins or cytokines. For example, differentially expressed miR-3192-5p, implicated in angiogenesis and oxidative stress in epicardial tissue, is negatively correlated with three CVD-associated proteins, fetuin-A, fibrinogen, and L-selectin (all estimates < -0.12, p<0.001).

Conclusion:
In our cohort, several miRNAs are differentially expressed in the few years after HDP compared to non-HDP pregnancy, many of which are implicated in hypertension and other CVDs, and correlate with CVD-associated proteins and inflammatory markers. This indicates that miRNAs, already well-studied in the primary CVD literature, may present promising targets for CVD risk stratification in those with HDP history.