Former BBMDVP Dr Nina Japundzic Zigon will give a presentation based on her visit in 2018 with her host Professor David Murphy, Bristol Medical School.

There will be an opportunity to ask questions following the presentation.

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in both men and women, but there are significant differences in the incidence, etiology, and outcomes between the sexes. Whilst awareness of the importance of sex differences in cardiovascular disease has increased of late, much of what we know about cardiovascular regulation has been derived from studies in males, and lessons learnt in males do not necessarily apply to females. In addition, the impact of uniquely female characteristics and physiological activities (oestrous cycle, pregnancy, lactation, and menopause) on cardiovascular health are not well understood.

Pregnancy is a particular challenge for the cardiovascular system because significant cardiovascular changes occur in pregnancy in order to provide enough nutrition for the embryo and maintain normal fetal intrauterine growth. Pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) complicates 6-10% of pregnancies and is the main causes of maternal, fetal and neonatal mortality and morbidity. By performing experimentation in freely moving radio-telemetred hypertensive and normotensive female and male rats, we found striking differences during pregnancy between hypertensive and normotensive rat strains, primarily in blood pressure levels, baro-reflex sensitivity, and re-bound hypertension in hypertensive female rats after parturition. We hypothesised that sex, pregnancy and lactation will have profound functional effects on the transcriptome of the PVN, a key hypothalamic nucleus responsible for setting the tone of presympathetic neurons and hence controlling heart rate and blood pressure.

Thanks to the award of a Benjamin Meaker Visiting Professorship, Prof Zigon was able to spend 3 months in Bristol studying global gene expression changes in the brains of male rats, virgin female rats and female rats during pregnancy and lactation. We have thus identified genes that may be responsible for the differences in cardiovascular physiology, and which may represent new drug targets for the treatment of hypertension in pregnancy.

More details and booking can be viewed here