Bart Spronck

Abstract Preeclampsia is a leading complication of pregnancy that lacks accurate tools for its early prediction. Improved risk stratification tools early in pregnancy would enable more efficient allocation of limited healthcare resources while ensuring that pregnant women destined to develop preeclampsia receive appropriate care. This brief perspective highlights the current state of first-trimester preeclampsia prediction.

Abstract Calciprotein particles (CPPs) are an endogenous buffering system, clearing excessive amounts of Ca2+ and PO43- from the circulation and thereby preventing ectopic mineralization. CPPs circulate as primary CPPs (CPP1), which are small spherical colloidal particles, and can aggregate to form large, crystalline, secondary CPPs (CPP2). Even though it has been reported that CPPs are toxic to vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) in vitro, their effect(s) on the vasculature remain unclear.

Abstract PURPOSE: Through their contractile and synthetic capacity, vascular smooth muscle cells play a key role in regulating the stiffness and resistance of the circulation. To model the contraction of blood vessels, an active stress component can be added to the (passive) Cauchy stress tensor. Different constitutive formulations have been proposed to describe this active stress component.