title: Salt, aldosterone and extrarenal Na+- sensitive responses in pregnancy.
abstract: Outside of pregnancy excessive salt consumption is known to be harmful being linked to increased blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. However, pregnancy represents a major change to a woman's physiology resulting in an intimate adaptation to environmental conditions. It is now becoming apparent that salt is essential for a number of these changes during pregnancy including haematological, cardiac adaptations as well as directly influencing placental development and the uteroplacental immune environment. The present review discusses the important role that salt has during normal pregnancy and evidence will also be presented to show how the placenta may act as a salt sensing organ temporarily, yet substantially regulating maternal blood pressure.
authors.affiliation: Division of Child Health, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, School of Medicine, 1st Floor Maternity Unit, City Hospital Nottingham, Nottingham NG5 1PB, United Kingdom. Electronic address: Paula.Scaife@nottingham.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Paula Juliet
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Scaife
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Research, University of Bern, Switzerland, 3Sonnenhof Hospital, Berne, Switzerland. Electronic address: markus.mohaupt@lindenhofgruppe.ch.
authors.forename: Markus Georg
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Mohaupt
mesh_terms: D000450:Aldosterone / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010920:Placenta / Q000378:metabolism*; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000378:metabolism*; D011247:Pregnancy; D012964:Sodium / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000450:Aldosterone; D012964:Sodium
keywords: Aldosterone; Macrophages; Placenta; Pre-eclampsia; Sodium sensing