Evidence Hub

Sildenafil Citrate Does Not Reprogram Risk of Hypertension and Chronic Kidney Disease in Offspring of Preeclamptic Pregnancies in the Dahl SS/Jr Rat

Turbeville HR, Johnson AC, Garrett MR, Sasser JM

Kidney360, 2020

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Preeclampsia is a disorder of pregnancy with accompanying high disease and economic burdens in the United States. Evidence supporting longstanding effects of preeclampsia on the offspring of affected pregnancies is high, but the effects of current antihypertensive therapies for preeclampsia on cardio-renal outcomes are largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that sildenafil citrate, a phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitor, reprograms the risk of hypertension and kidney disease in offspring of preeclamptic pregnancies by altering responses to secondary stressors.

METHODS: Dahl SS/Jr rats on a 0.3% NaCl diet were mated. At gestational day 10, pregnant dams were randomized to vehicle diet or diet with sildenafil (50 mg/kg per day), which was continued until birth. Pups were weaned at 4 weeks of age and allowed to age on a 0.3% NaCl diet until 3 months of age. At this point, pups were randomized into three groups: baseline or no intervention, 2% NaCl diet challenge for 4 weeks, or a subpressor infusion of angiotensin II (200 ng/kg per minute) for 2 weeks.

RESULTS: There were no differences among maternal treatment groups at baseline. Upon introduction of 2% NaCl diet, male offspring of sildenafil-treated dams exhibited an attenuated rise in BP; however, this protection was not observed during angiotensin II infusion.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that intrapartum sildenafil does not reprogram the risk of hypertension and kidney disease in…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free