The responsiveness of isolated human hand vein endothelial cells in normal pregnancy and in pre-eclampsia.

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1. Human hand vein endothelial cells were isolated from blood obtained by traumatic venepuncture. Cells were identified as endothelial by staining with endothelium-specific antibodies. The subject groups studied were (i) non-pregnant, (ii) pregnant (mean, 35 weeks gestation) and (iii) pre-eclamptic women (mean, 36 weeks gestation). 2. Fura-2 was used to measure agonist-induced responses in intracellular Ca2+ in single endothelial cells isolated and maintained in vitro. All of the cells examined responded to adenosine triphosphate (ATP) with a large transient increase in Ca2+ followed by a sustained plateau. 3. The responses to ATP were significantly larger in the cells from pregnant women than in those from non-pregnant and pre-eclamptic women, but no other differences were observed. The amplitudes of the responses to ATP were (means +/- s.e.m.) 0.56 +/- 0.04, 1.42 +/- 0.24 and 0.65 +/- 0.09 fura-2 ratio units for cells from non-pregnant, pregnant and pre-eclamptic subjects, respectively. 4. In cells isolated from non-pregnant subjects, the amplitude of the responses to carbachol, histamine and bradykinin were all smaller than those activated by ATP: 5.1, 13.9 and 4.4 %, respectively. Not all cells responded to these agonists: 25 % responded to carbachol, 70.5 % responded to histamine and 12.5 % responded to bradykinin. Sixty-five per cent of the cells from normotensive pregnant subjects responded to bradykinin compared with 25 % in the non-pregnant and 13.9 % in the pre-eclamptic subjects. 5. These data suggest that there may be differences in the responsiveness of venous endothelial cells in pregnancy and that pre-eclamptic cells behave differently.