C3 and preeclampsia: By employing intrauterine injection of shRNA (short hairpin RNA that acts as silencing RNA) to dose dependently reduce Crry in the mouse placenta at 10.5 dpc, after the critical window for complement-mediated embryonic lethality in homozygous knockouts, the researchers observed that ~ 30% reduction in placental Crry led to increased C3 deposition in the labyrinth at 17.5 dpc, decreased fetal weight and increased blood pressure in the dam (132) – symptoms indicative of preeclampsia.