Expression and significance of angiotensin II receptor 1 in human placenta of pregnancy induced hypertension

Objective: To investigate the expression of angiotensionⅡ receptor 1(AT 1)in the placenta of patients with pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH) and discuss its role in the pathogenesis of PIH. Methods: Immunohistochemistry (SP Method) was used to study the expression of AT 1 in the placenta of 30 patients of PIH (10 mild PIH;10 moderate PIH;10 severe PIH) and 10 normal pregnancies (the control group). High resolution pathological image analysis system (HPIAS-1000) was used for the quantitative analysis of AT 1. Results: The staining area, average optical density and integral optical density were determined on sections of placenta from PIHs and normal pregnancies women by HPIAS-1000. The staining area, average optical density and integral optical density in the syncytiotrophoblast (STB) layer and villous endothelium of human placental tissue was greatly increased in preeclamptic patients mainly in moderate group and severe PIH group than the control group ( P 0.05), indicating that the expression of AT 1 is highly increased in PIH. Conclusion: The expression of AT 1 receptor in the STB layer and villous endothelium of human placental tissue was greatly increased in the placenta of PIH patients, indicating that this may be involved in the pathogenesis of PIH.