A. Inkeri LokkiUniversity of Helsinki | HY · Department of Bacteriology and Immunology
A. Inkeri Lokki
PhD
About
67
Publications
5,890
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
513
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
A. Inkeri Lokki currently works at the Department of Bacteriology and Immunology and Immunobiology Research Program, University of Helsinki. Inkeri does research in Molecular Biology, Immunology, Placentology, and Genetics. One of their current projects is 'Complement system and candidate genes in pre-eclampsia'.
Additional affiliations
March 2019 - present
Position
- Group teacher
Description
- Instructor for small group learning. Immunology course for second year medical students.
November 2017 - present
August 2016 - present
Position
- Group teacher
Description
- Instructor for small group learning. Immunology course for third year denistry students.
Education
February 2010 - November 2017
September 2005 - June 2011
July 2003 - June 2004
Publications
Publications (67)
Preeclampsia (PE) is a common disorder of pregnancy originating in the placenta. We examined whether excessive activation or poor regulation of the complement system at the maternal-fetal interface could contribute to the development of PE. Location and occurrence of complement components and regulators in placentae were analyzed. Cryostat sections...
Preeclampsia is a common pregnancy-specific vascular disorder characterized by new-onset hypertension and proteinuria during the second half of pregnancy. Predisposition to preeclampsia is in part heritable. It is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease later in life. We have sequenced 124 candidate genes implicated in preeclamp...
Preeclampsia is a serious vascular complication of the human pregnancy, whose etiology is still poorly understood. In preeclampsia, exacerbated apoptosis and fragmentation of the placental tissue occurs due to developmental qualities of the placental trophoblast cells and/or mechanical and oxidative distress to the syncytiotrophoblast, which lines...
Objective: To study genetic variants and their function within genes coding for complement receptors in preeclampsia.
Design: A case-control study.
Setting: Preeclampsia is a common vascular disease of pregnancy. The clearance of placenta-derived material is one of the functions of the complement system in pregnancy.
Population: We genotyped 500...
Lamellar metaplastic bone, osteoid metaplasia (OM), is found in atherosclerotic plaques, especially in femoral arteries. In carotid arteries OM has been documented to be associated with plaque stability. This study investigated the clinical impact of OM load in femoral artery plaques of patients with lower extremity artery disease (LEAD) using a de...
Background
Clinical implications of different types of vascular calcification are poorly understood. The two most abundant forms of calcification, nodular and sheet calcification, have not been quantitatively analyzed in relation to the clinical presentation of lower extremity arterial disease (LEAD).
Methods
The study analyzed 51 femoral artery p...
The Early-Career Complementologists (ECCO) is a task force that was established, in close collaboration with the European Complement Network (ECN) and the International Complement Society (ICS), with the specific mission to support and connect early-career researchers (ECRs) in the complement field. ECRs are junior scientists at the early stages of...
Background
Vaginal microbiome and the local innate immune defense, including the complement system, contribute to anti- and proinflammatory homeostasis during pregnancy and parturition. The relationship between commensal vaginal bacteria and complement activation during pregnancy and delivery is not known.
Objective
To study the association of the...
Preeclampsia is a vascular pregnancy disorder that affects 3-5% of all pregnancies. Genetic contribution to preeclampsia susceptibility is well established, but the actual risk loci have remained largely unknown. To make further discoveries of the underlying genetic architecture, we performed a new genome-wide association study (GWAS) for maternal...
Preeclampsia (PE) generally manifests in the second half of pregnancy with hypertension and proteinuria. The understanding of the origin and mechanism behind PE is incomplete, although there is clearly an immune component to this disorder. The placenta constitutes a complicated immune interface between fetal and maternal cells, where regulation and...
Vascular calcification exists in different forms that reflect variable clinical and histological implications. Categories of calcification have not been quantified in relation to the clinical presentation of lower extremity arterial disease. The study analyzed 51 femoral plaques collected during femoral endarterectomy, characterized by > 90% stenos...
Research on the complement system, like most areas of immunology, has seen tremendous progress over the last decades. Further advances in the complement field will rely on the next generation of scientific leaders, which are today's early-career researchers (ECRs). ECRs are emerging scientists who obtained their PhD degree within the past five year...
Preeclampsia is a multifactorial vascular disease unique to human pregnancy. While genetic and antiangiogenic factors are important contributors to preeclampsia susceptibility, recent studies have shown that dysregulation and/or over-activation of the complement system has an integral role in disease etiology. Furthermore, the role of the coagulati...
Editorial on the Research Topic
Editorial: Innate Immunity in Normal Pregnancy
BACKGROUND: Human pregnancy alters profoundly the immune system. The local involvement and mechanisms of activation of the complement system in the cervicovaginal milieu during pregnancy and delivery remain unexplored.
OBJECTIVES: To determine whether normal pregnancy and delivery are associated with local activation of complement or changes in the...
Preeclampsia is a pregnancy-specific disorder affecting ca 3% of all pregnant women. Preeclampsia is the source of severe pregnancy complications. Later life consequences for mother and infant include increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Preeclampsia is caused by the dysfunction of the endothelium with subsequent activation of complement and c...
The healthy co-existence of two genetically different organisms during pregnancy is a great immunological challenge. Complement has previously been described to play a role in pre-eclampsia, a pathology, where this immunological balance is disturbed. When the feto-maternal barrier in the human placenta, the syncytiotrophoblast layer, is damaged, th...
It is essential for early human life that mucosal immunological responses to developing embryos are tightly regulated. An imbalance of the complement system is a common feature of pregnancy complications. We hereby present the first full analysis of the expression and deposition of complement molecules in human pre-implantation embryos. Thus, far,...
It is essential for early human life that immunological responses to developing embryos are tightly regulated. An imbalance in the activation and regulation of the human complement system occurs in pregnancy complications, such as pre-eclampsia and recurrent miscarriage. We hereby present the first full analysis of the expression and deposition of...
Objective
Maternal vitamin D level in pregnancy may have implications for both the mother and fetus. Deficiency of vitamin D has been linked to several pregnancy complications and fetal skeletal health. Smoking has been associated with reduced serum level of the vitamin D metabolite, 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D).
Design
A nested case–control stud...
Pregnancy is an immunological challenge to the mother. The fetal tissues including the placenta must be protected from activation of the maternal immune system. On the other hand, the placental tissue sheds into the maternal circulation and must be adequately identified and phagocytized by the maternal immune system. During a healthy pregnancy, num...
The human pregnancy is a unique immunological process. The foetus is tolerated and nourished through the complex yet transient organ, placenta, which bears the genetic fingerprint of the developing baby. Human placentation involves several waves of invasion, whereby the placenta is deeply attached to layers of the uterine wall, through the mucosal...
Complement C4 genes are linked to pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (PIBD), but the mechanisms have remained unclear. We examined the influence of C4B gene number on intestinal microbiota and in vitro serum complement activation by intestinal microbes in PIBD patients. Complement C4A and C4B gene numbers were determined by genomic RT-PCR from 64...
Inflammation is an important mediator of obesity-related complications such as the metabolic syndrome but its causes and mechanisms are unknown. As the complement system is a key mediator of inflammation, we studied whether it is activated in acquired obesity in subcutaneous adipose tissue and isolated adipocytes. We used a special study design of...
Preeclampsia is a common vascular disease of pregnancy with genetic predisposition. Dysregulation of the complement system has been implicated, but molecular mechanisms are incompletely understood. In this study, we determined the potential linkage of severe preeclampsia to the most central complement gene, C3. Three cohorts of Finnish patients and...
Objectives:
Preeclampsia is divided into early-onset (delivery before 34 weeks of gestation) and late-onset (delivery at or after 34 weeks) subtypes, which may rise from different etiopathogenic backgrounds. Early-onset disease is associated with placental dysfunction. Late-onset disease develops predominantly due to metabolic disturbances, obesit...
The risk ratios and 95%CI of the least frequent clusters.
The marking C20 etc. is referring to certain row in the heatmap. If the risk factor is inside brackets, only a portion of women in the cluster had that risk factor.
(PDF)
The heatmap with Bonferroni corrections.
Results of the cluster analysis. The heatmap presents the risk factors (columns) in the different clusters on the left side with black boxes. The rows correspond to the 25 clusters (C1-C25) identified on the basis of the risk factor profiles, and the sizes of the clusters are shown on the left side of the he...
International Complement Workshop 2016
Introduction:
Preeclampsia is a common and partially genetic pregnancy complication characterized by hypertension and proteinuria. Association with cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes has been reported in 9p21 by several genome-wide association studies. It has been hypothesized that cardiometabolic diseases may share common etiology with pr...
Pre-eclampsia is a leading cause of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality worldwide. The etiology is not clear, but an immune attack towards components of placenta or fetus has been indicated. This involves activation of the complement system in the placenta. We have previously described the presence of the complement-regulating protein sa...
Preeclampsia is a common disorder of pregnancy characterized by endothelial dysfunction. It may be life-threatening for the mother and fetus in severe cases. Dysregulation of the complement system has been suggested to predispose women to preeclampsia. Complement is part of the innate and adaptive immune systems and potentially capable of causing i...
Pre-eclampsia is an idiopathic pregnancy disorder promoting morbidity and mortality to both mother and child. Delivery of the fetus is the only means to resolve severe symptoms. Women with pre-eclamptic pregnancies demonstrate increased risk for later life cardiovascular disease (CVD) and good evidence suggests these two syndromes share several ris...
Background:
Preeclampsia is a multisystem disorder of pregnancy, originating in the placenta. Cytochrome P450 (CYP)-dependent eicosanoids regulate vascular function, inflammation, and angiogenesis, which are mechanistically important in preeclampsia.
Methods and results:
We performed microarray screening of placenta and decidua (maternal placent...
Pre-eclampsia/eclampsia is a common vascular pregnancy disorder associated with high maternal and infant mortality and morbidity worldwide. The role of Activin A and more recently type 2 Activin A receptor (ACVR2A) in the pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia has been the subject of genetic and biochemical research with controversial results.
We genotyped...
Fulani are a widely spread African ethnic group characterized by lower susceptibility to Plasmodium falciparum, clinical malaria morbidity and higher rate of lactase persistence compared to sympatric tribes. Lactase non-persistence, often called lactose intolerance, is the normal condition where lactase activity in the intestinal wall declines afte...
Projects
Projects (4)
Early-Career Complementologists (ECCO) is a new initiative from the European Complement Network (ECN) and the International Complement Society (ICS), two professional societies managed by researchers and clinicians investigating the complement system in health and disease. ECCO aims to support, engage and connect early-career scientists in the complement field worldwide.
We share information about great science (paper of the week, clinical highlight of the month, scientist of the month), job opportunities, fellowship-calls, as well as social activities. Follow our weekly updates on social media and participate in shaping your complement society. Follow us, and message us directly on:
- Email: ECCO@complement.org
- Twitter: @EccoComplement
- LinkedIn: Early-Career Complementologists
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EarlyComplement/
We encourage all early-career researchers in the Complement field to become a member of ECCO! Sign-up for membership at the link below to receive access to our newsletter and information about upcoming events/awards. Membership is FREE and OPEN internationally to all early-career scientists:
- https://t.co/rRP6BQIpNb
Studying the rare HELLP syndrome in human pregnancy using clinical and genetic tools.