PhD defence R.I. (Rugina) Neümañ

Dissertation in short:

PART I – II
Preeclampsia (PE) is a severe, hypertensive complication of pregnancy, annually accounting for more than 70,000 maternal deaths and 500,000 fetal deaths worldwide. Although many pathways have been recognized in the pathophysiology of this syndrome including a role for inflammation, oxidative stress and angiogenic dysfunction, we have not yet succeeded in developing accurate clinical prediction tools, neither did we progress in finding curative treatment options. With the research presented in this part of the thesis, we aimed to improve prognostic and treatment strategies, predominantly focusing on placenta-derived circulating factors.

PART III
Acute fatty liver of pregnancy (AFLP) is a relatively rare disorder unique to pregnancy, characterized by acute hepatic dysfunction. Despite the distinctive features of this condition, differentiating AFLP from PE and HELLP syndrome (hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes and low platelet count) is not always straightforward, especially since hypertension and proteinuria may also occur in AFLP. This raises the question whether AFLP and PE or HELLP could share similar pathogenic mechanisms. In this part of the thesis, we explored the role of angiogenesis-related factors in AFLP.