We designed a series of experiments to show that autophagy activated by hypoxia could protect against the ox-LDL–mediated preeclampsia-like phenotype in HTR8/SVneo cells: migration declined, apoptosis (Bax was upregulated), and impaired angiogenesis (VEGFA was downregulated and FLT1 upregulated). Here, VEGFA is linked to preeclampsia.