Morphological changes in the umbilical arteries of babies born to pre-eclamptic mothers: an ultrastructural study

The umbilical arteries of babies from ten normal pregnancies and from ten babies born to pre-eclamptic mothers were studied. Ultrastructurally, there were marked abnormalities of umbilical arterial morphology in the pre-eclamptic group. A loss of intercellular junctions, distension of the endoplasmic reticulum and an increase in cell organelles in the endothelial cells leading to a partial de-endothelialization was noted. Smooth muscle cells showed the morphological features of metabolic activation. These ultrastructural findings can be attributed to fetal hypoxia and to disturbances in cellular lipid metabolism; they suggest that there may be an abnormal fetal arterial blood flow in maternal pre-eclampsia.