Pregnancy enhances the sensitivity of glomerular ecto–adenosine triphosphate–diphosphohydrolase to products of activated polymorphonuclear leukocytes, ,

To test the hypothesis that pregnancy enhances the sensitivity of glomerular ecto–adenosine triphosphate–diphosphohydrolase to products of activated polymorphonuclear leukocytes, cryostat-cut kidney sections of pregnant and cycling rats were exposed to activated polymorphonuclear leukocytes and subsequently stained for ecto–adenosine triphosphate–diphosphohydrolase activity. The results show that the levels of ecto–adenosine triphosphate–diphosphohydrolase activity of pregnant rats showed a significantly greater decrease after incubation with activated polymorphonuclear leukocytes than did those of cycling rats. (Am J Obstet Gynecol 1999;180:112-3.)