Garcia-Honduvilla N, et al. - This prospective study evaluated the pattern of histopathological lesions and the gene and protein expression of HIF1-α and apoptosis regulatory proteins on placenta samples from women with pregnancy-associated venous insufficiency (VI) and age-matched pregnant healthy controls (HC). At both the mRNA and protein levels, the HIF-1α expression appeared to be considerably raised in placentas from women with VI. It was determined that placentas from women with pregnancy-associated VI displayed structural remodeling, with an increase in the number of villi and syncytial knots and enhanced apoptotic cellular death. A connection was demonstrated between this placental damage with an increased expression of hypoxia-triggered molecular pathways, such as HIF-1α.