Low-Dose Aspirin AIDS Pregnant Mothers

Low-dose aspirin therapy holds great promise in treating pregnant mothers’ high blood pressure despite potential complications, researchers said Tuesday.

Queens University researcher Colin Funk, who began the work while at the University of Pennsylvania, said his study of rats shows low-dose aspirin is definitely a feasible therapeutic strategy to treat pre-eclampsia, a condition that causes high blood pressure in mothers in five percent to 10 percent of pregnancies.

The disorder is a leading cause of maternal and infant deaths in developing countries, researchers said.

While the use of aspirin could cause clotting problems and complications during labor, Funk said a test on mice found small doses of aspirin resulted in only small uterine and ovarian changes.

This new mouse model will have significant value in studying the implications of low-dose aspirin in several pathological conditions, such as pre-eclampsia, thrombosis and inflammatory disorders, he said. We’re hopeful that our model will lead the way to further treatment options for these debilitating conditions.

The study results are published online in the international Journal of Clinical Investigation.