Oxidant status is maintained through different mechanisms in male and female intrauterine growth restricted offspring

Abstract

Placental insufficiency in the rat leads to low birth weight with development of hypertension in male intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) offspring; however, female IUGR are normotensive indicating sex differences in response to fetal insult.We previously reported that renal superoxide production is significantly elevated in male IUGR versus male Control, an increase abolished by treatment with TEMPOL (1mMol/L for 2 weeks).Furthermore, chronic tempol also abolishes hypertension in male IUGR suggesting oxidative stress contributes to hypertension in male IUGR.In this study we tested the hypothesis that oxidant status is maintained through different mechanisms in male and female IUGR; thus, leading to sex differences in IUGR blood pressure.We examined antioxidant enzymes CuZn superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPX), and the mitochondrial enzyme, manganese SOD (MnSOD).We observed protein expression of CAT, GPXe, and MnSOD were significantly decreased in hypertensive male IUGR as compared to normotensive female IUGR, a decrease of 40%, 53%, and 51%, respectively. These studies indicate that sex differences in IUGR blood pressure may involve an imbalance of anti‐oxidant enzymes.NIH/NCRR INBRE RR016476, NIH/NCMHHD IP20MD002725‐01, NIH RO1‐HL074927‐01A1, NIH/NHLBI PO1‐H51971, NIH/NHLBI RO1‐HL38499.