Epigenomic Dysregulation in Preeclampsia-Associated Chronic Hypertension

Preliminary data from the investigator's lab identified novel patterns of differential DNA
methylation in genes regulating cardiovascular and metabolic function in blood from women
during the first trimester of pregnancy who were destined to develop preeclampsia (PE) in
the third trimester. Further, common patterns of differential DNA methylation were found in
the common genes from placental tissue at time of birth in the same women after diagnosis
with PE, suggesting that the epigenomic patterns that predict pregnancy-induced hypertension
may also underlie the development of chronic hypertension years after.

It is unknown whether aberrant DNA methylation in pregnancy-induced hypertension is the
mechanism by which chronic hypertension develops in these women remote from pregnancy nor is
it known if hypertension remote from PE is as responsive to therapeutic treatment of
hypertension compared to women who develop hypertension without history of PE. The
investigators plan to objectively test the central hypothesis and attain the objective of
this project