Increased oxidative stress from early pregnancy in women who develop preeclampsia.

AbstractPreeclampsia (PE) is a pregnancy-specific disorder, defined as new onset of maternal hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks of gestation. Our earlier study has shown increased maternal oxidative stress at delivery to be associated with poor birth outcome in PE. However, these results were observed when the pathology had progressed and may have been secondary to the effects of the disorder. To understand the role of antioxidant defense mechanisms in PE right from early pregnancy, in this prospective study, we measured malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathione (GSH) concentrations in maternal blood at 3 time-points of gestation [16–20 weeks (T1), 26–30 weeks (T2), at delivery (T3)] and in cord blood. Gene expression of SOD and GPx and protein levels of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) enzyme were also analyzed in the placenta. MDA levels were higher at T1 (p < 0.01) and T2 (p < 0.01) in women with PE as compared with control. GPx lev...