Study of Lipid Peroxidation and Antioxidant Status in Pre-eclampsia

Abstract

Pre-eclampsia is a frequent and potentially dangerous complication of pregnancy which affects about 2–4% of all pregnancies and is associated with high maternal and foetal morbidity and mortality in developing countries. Multiple factors, including increased oxidative stress and decreased antioxidant capacity have been associated with pre-eclampsia. The study group included 110 female subjects. Among them 40 subjects are healthy pregnant women as controls and 70 are clinically diagnosed pre-eclamptic cases, further divided into mild and severe pre-eclamptic cases after 20 weeks of gestation. Serum samples were assayed for serum Malondialdehyde, Vitamin E, Superoxide Dismutase and Erythrocyte reduced glutathione in healthy controls and in pre-eclamptic cases to find a correlation of their serum levels with the severity of pre-eclampsia. Pre-eclamptic patients had significantly increased levels of serum malondialdehyde and decreased levels of serum vitamin E, superoxide dismutase and erythrocyte reduced glutathione. These changes were more pronounced in severe pre-eclampsia when compared to mild pre-eclamptic cases. This study evaluates whether pre-eclamptic patients show a higher degree of oxidative stress than normal pregnancies which plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia and to determine if this oxidative stress is related to clinical severity of pre-eclampsia. This study suggests that a regular evaluation of oxidant and antioxidant status could provide early predictive indices of risk factors and further intervention to prevent pre-eclampsia.