The atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) knockout mouse does not exhibit the phenotypic features of pre-eclampsia or demonstrate fetal growth restriction

The ANP knockout mouse is reported to exhibit pregnancy-associated hypertension, proteinuria and impaired placental trophoblast invasion and spiral artery remodeling, key features of pre-eclampsia (PE). We hypothesized that these mice may provide a relevant model of human PE with associated fetal growth restriction (FGR). Here, we investigated pregnancies of ANP wild type (ANP(+)/(+)), heterozygous (ANP(+/-)) and knockout (ANP(-/-)) mice. Maternal blood pressure did not differ between genotypes (E12.5, E17.5), and fetal weight (E18.5) was unaffected. Placental weight was greater in ANP(-/-) versus ANP(+/+) mice. Therefore, in our hands, the ANP model does not express phenotypic features of PE with FGR. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).