Placental anti-oxidant gene polymorphisms, enzyme activity, and oxidative stress in preeclampsia

The etiology and pathophysiology of preeclampsia are not fully understood. However, oxidative stress has been strongly linked to the occurrence of this multi-system disease. This has led to many theories of the pathogenesis of preeclampsia involving placental oxidative stress. In this study, we hypothesized that polymorphisms of anti-oxidant genes in the placental tissue contributed to susceptibility to preeclampsia. Polymorphisms in copper/zinc superoxide dismutase (CuZn-SOD), manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), glutathione-S-transferase M1 (GSTM1), and glutathione-S-transferase T1 (GSTT1) in the umbilical cord tissue were assayed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in 23 nulliparous preeclampsia cases and 32 nulliparous normotensive controls. Corresponding enzyme activity levels and an oxidative stress biomarker (8-isoprostane) of the placental tissue were also measured. In addition, maternal plasma 8-isoprostane levels were also determined. Our results showed that no significant differences in polymorphism frequency of the tested genes, enzyme activity levels or 8-isoprostane levels in the placental tissue were detected between the cases and controls. However, maternal plasma 8-isoprostane level was significantly higher in the cases than in the controls (105.8 vs. 27.9 pg/ml, p=0.03). In conclusion, our study showed that polymorphisms of CuZn-SOD, MnSOD, GSTM1 and GSTT1 in the placental tissue were not associated with preeclampsia.