NOS3 and preeclampsia: Although HUVECs are not maternal in origin, they exhibit many phenomena of endothelial activation/dysfunction found in the maternal systemic vasculature in preeclampsia, such as increased endothelial adhesion molecule and protease activating receptor expression [15], reduced endothelial junction molecule and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) expression [31], and altered miRNA expression [32].