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This treatment option provides recombinant relaxin to patients conceiving by Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART), restoring overall cardiovascular conditions during pregnancy. Assisted reproductive technology aims to obtain pregnancy by way of in vitro fertilization of either a couple’s own eggs and sperm or those of donors. ART is associated with higher rates of hypertensive diseases during pregnancy; especially those protocols resulting in an absent corpus luteum. Expecting mothers generally experience changes in overall cardiovascular function, which are initiated at least in part by corpus luteal hormones, such as relaxin, in early pregnancy. Low levels of such corpus luteal hormones can lead to various complications, such as preeclampsia or preeclampsia with severe features. However, no available treatments aim to fully establish physiological conditions among patients using assisted productive technology.
Researchers at the University of Florida have discovered that relaxin helps mediate crucial cardiovascular adaptations, which provides an internal environment that is likely to improve the chances of successful pregnancy. To restore maternal adaptations among assisted pregnancies lacking a corpus luteum, researchers proposed a treatment option for patients to use relaxin or a relaxin analog, thereby enabling mothers conceiving by assisted reproductive technologies to experience physiologic pregnancies and reduced risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preeclampsia.
Use of relaxin or relaxin analogs to initiate normal cardiovascular adaptations in patients conceiving by assisted reproductive technologies in which the corpus luteum is absent
Relaxin is a corpus luteal hormone that contributes to crucial cardiovascular, renal and osmoregulatory adaptations during the first half of pregnancy. Women conceiving by donor eggs, in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer, or frozen autologous embryo transfer usually lack circulating relaxin due to the absence of the corpus luteum. These patients therefore fail to optimize their cardiovascular adaptation to pregnancy and experience higher rates of preeclampsia. Relaxin or relaxin analogs could be useful to expecting women without a corpus luteum.
This use of the hormone relaxin, relaxin-like peptides or mimetics to positively impact the number and function of bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cells positions it as a distinctive therapeutic for conditions such as preeclampsia and other cardiovascular diseases. During pregnancy, women show a marked decrease in systemic vascular resistance, increases in cardiac output and global arterial compliance, and a decline in arterial pressure. The ovarian peptide hormone relaxin plays a key role in these positive adaptations. Increasing bone-marrow derived endothelial progenitor cells during pregnancy facilitates the development of new blood vessels and contributes to accelerated repair of existing blood vessels. Women who suffer from diabetes or preeclampsia during pregnancy may have a defect in the number or function of bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cells, which may improve with relaxin therapy.
Researchers at the University of Florida have discovered that the use of relaxin to increase the number and function of bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cells has therapeutic potential as a potent therapeutic in preeclampsia, cardiovascular disease and other pathologic conditions.
Use of relaxin or relaxin-like peptides or mimetics to increase the number and activity of bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cells in preeclampsia, cardiovascular disease or other pathologic conditions.
Provides a method to mobilize, activate and incorporate bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cells, enabling:
Relaxin regulates the biology of bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cells by increasing the cells in number and function, enhancing their integration into sites where new blood vessels either form or need repair. Specifically, the recombinant human relaxin-2 (rhRLX) stimulates nitric oxide production in human bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cells within minutes and activates their migration. Relaxin or relaxin-like hormones could be useful for a number of indications, many of them regenerative, including promoting angiogenesis, vasculogenesis, neovascularization and vascular remodeling.