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Evidence For Attenuation Of Myo-Inositol Uptake, Phosphoinositide Turnover And Inositol Phosphate Production In Aortic Vasculature Of Rats During Pregnancy, Kirk P. Conrad, Susan A. Barrera, Peter A. Friedman, Vicki M. Schmidt

Dartmouth Scholarship

We postulated that vascular phosphoinositide metabolism is attenuated during pregnancy, and thereby could contribute to maternal vasodilation and reduced vascular reactivity. The basal rate of incorporation of [3H]myo-inositol and [3H]glycerol into phosphoinositides of aortae from pregnant rats in vitro was significantly reduced, when compared with vessels from virgin animals. After injection of [3H]myo-inositol intravenously into chronically instrumented conscious pregnant and virgin rats, the incorporation of the label by phosphatidylinositol was 66 +/- 4% less in aortae of gravid versus virgin animals (P less than 0.001), despite comparable plasma concentrations of radioactivity. Fold stimulation of total [3H]inositol phosphates by arginine vasopressin, …