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Updated: Oct 15, 2026

The Use of Gas Chromatography to Analyze Compositional Changes of Fatty Acids in Rat Liver Tissue during Pregnancy
11:08

The Use of Gas Chromatography to Analyze Compositional Changes of Fatty Acids in Rat Liver Tissue during Pregnancy

Published on: March 13, 2014

Urinary orotic acid levels in normal pregnancy and pregnancy-induced hypertension

K Furutani1, H Ochi, K Matsubara

  • 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Ehime University School of Medicine, Japan.

Gynecologic and Obstetric Investigation
|July 15, 2000
PubMed

Our objective was to study the urinary levels of orotic acid in normal pregnancy and in pregnancy-induced hypertension. Such levels were measured using high-performance liquid chromatography with column-switching. The levels of urinary orotic acid (micromol/g creatinine) in normal pregnancy (n = 14) were 6.9 +/- 2.3 (first trimester), 10.1 +/- 2.4 (20 weeks) and 12.0 +/- 3.7 (30 weeks). In pregnancy-induced hypertension (n = 14), the corresponding levels were 6.5 +/- 1.7, 7.8 +/- 2.7 and 7.6 +/- 2.3, respectively. Normal pregnant subjects individually showed a significant elevation at 20 and 30 weeks of gestation as compared with those in the first trimester (p < 0.01). A high consumption of arginine in nitric oxide production during normal pregnancy may cause a physiological elevation of urinary orotic acid. The absence of an elevation in pregnancy-induced hypertension may be associated with a decrease in nitric oxide production.

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