Bristol Researcher Joins European Effort to Decode Heart Risks Post-Pregnancy

Bristol Researcher Joins European Effort to Decode Heart Risks Post-Pregnancy

(IN BRIEF) Professor Abigail Fraser, leading a team from the University of Bristol, partners with researchers in the Netherlands to investigate the links between maternal vascular malperfusion (MVM) in placentas and future heart and circulatory diseases. Funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), this pioneering collaboration between BHF, Dutch Heart Foundation (DHF), and German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK) aims to identify warning signs of heart problems post-pregnancy. With over £476,620 in funding, the study utilizes data from the Children of the 90s study in the UK and a Dutch cohort to track women’s health over years, potentially enabling early intervention strategies to mitigate heart risks. This project, named ‘Bi-national investigation of placental pathology and maternal cardiovascular health (BI-PATH),’ is part of a larger €5 million commitment across four international research teams, fostering collaboration and accelerating mid-career researchers’ trajectories towards leadership in cardiovascular science.

(PRESS RELEASE) BRISTOL, 20-Mar-2024 — /EuropaWire/ — A Bristol researcher will join forces with a team in the Netherlands to drive breakthroughs in heart and circulatory diseases research, thanks to a pioneering partnership between the British Heart Foundation (BHF), Dutch Heart Foundation (DHF) and German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK).

The Bristol team, led by Professor Abigail Fraser, will receive £476,620 from the BHF to support research that aims to shed light on the warning signs of future heart problems after pregnancy.

Women who develop high blood pressure or pre-eclampsia during pregnancy are at higher risk of developing heart and circulatory diseases in future. Researchers have found that many women who experience these complications also have signs of maternal vascular malperfusion (MVM) in their placentas, caused when arteries in the uterus don’t undergo the necessary changes to ensure that the placenta and the baby receive adequate blood supply during pregnancy.

In this study, researchers will use data and samples from the Children of the 90s study in the UK and a study in the Netherlands that have followed women since they were pregnant to track their health over many years.  They will test their placentas to identify those that show signs of MVM and investigate whether this is associated with the development of heart and circulatory diseases in the following years.

Placentas from the Children of the 90s study were collected from the original pregnant mothers recruited to take part in in the early 1990s.

The team hopes this will prove a simple way to spot women who may be at risk early, so that they can be offered preventative treatments and monitoring to help ward off future heart problems.

The University of Bristol research, which involves co-applicants and collaborators in the UK and the Netherlands, is funded through a new partnership comprising the three European funders. Collectively, they have committed over €5 million (approximately £4.7 million) including Bristol, over the next four years to four international research teams tackling heart and circulatory diseases.

This is the fifth round of awards resulting from this partnership, and the second year specifically targeted at supporting mid-career researchers in the three countries. The funding will enable researchers to pool and exchange their knowledge, expertise, and resources to tackle some of the most pressing questions in cardiovascular science and medicine. The awards will also help to accelerate the investigators’ trajectories towards becoming future leaders in their fields of research.

Professor Metin Avkiran, Associate Medical Director at the BHF, said: “We’re delighted to be funding this ambitious project in collaboration with our European partners, building on the success of the awards we have funded together over the past five years. By joining forces to support the best and the brightest across our countries to work together on pressing problems, we can ensure the money donated by our generous supporters goes further to power more lifesaving research.

“Scientific progress thrives on international collaboration. Through this funding we can help to cement collaborations between future research leaders that will continue to reap rewards long after these projects have finished.”

The study is entitled ‘Bi-national investigation of placental pathology and maternal cardiovascular health (BI-PATH)’.  Principal investigators of the study are Abigail Fraser, Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Bristol and Dr Casper Mihl in the Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM) at Maastricht University Medical Center.

About the British Heart Foundation
It is only with donations from the public that the BHF can keep its lifesaving research going. Help us turn science fiction into reality. With donations from the public, the BHF funds ground-breaking research that will get us closer than ever to a world free from the fear of heart and circulatory diseases. A world where broken hearts are mended, where millions more people survive a heart attack, where the number of people dying from or disabled by a stroke is slashed in half. A world where people affected by heart and circulatory diseases get the support they need. And a world of cures and treatments we can’t even imagine today. Find out more at

About the Dutch Heart Foundation
The Dutch Heart Foundation, with the invaluable help of volunteers and donors, aims to find solutions to improve the heart health of the Dutch society. Our mission is a healthy heart for everyone, now and in the future. We achieve this by rapidly diagnosing those with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and promoting healthy living.

We therefore fund research into how we can make our environment healthier and the early detection, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease, both in emergency situations and in the longer term. We are also passionate about educating patients and the public. Through this work, we remain committed to keeping the Dutch heart healthy and tackling the burden of cardiovascular disease.

We partner with other funders to fund cardiovascular research. We work with researchers, universities, healthcare professionals and patient organisations to solve bottlenecks, together. We strengthen cardiovascular research by offering opportunities to top talent. We ensure that solutions reach patients faster by fostering collaboration between researchers and future beneficiaries. In everything we do, we take diversity into account, for example, differences between men and women or income and cultural background.

About Children of the 90s 
Based at the University of Bristol, Children of the 90s, also known as the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), is a long-term health research project that enrolled more than 14,000 pregnant women in 1991 and 1992.  It has been following the health and development of the parents, their children and now their grandchildren in detail ever since. It receives core funding from the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and the University of Bristol.

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SOURCE: University of Bristol