Altered sphingolipid composition in Wharton's jelly of pre-eclamptic newborns

Wharton's jelly is a myxomatous substance surrounding the umbilical cord (UC) vessels to protect them against extension, bending, twisting and compression. Pre-eclampsia (hypertension, oedema, proteinuria) is the most common pregnancy-associated pathological syndrome. It is accompanied by significant alterations in UC composition. Here we describe the sphingolipids of Wharton's jelly from 10 newborns delivered by healthy mothers and from 10 babies of pre-eclamptic mothers.

Thin-layer chromatography, solid-phase extraction and high-performance liquid chromatography were employed.

Control tissues were abundant in sphingomyelins (Sms) and ceramides (Cers), whereas the amounts of sphingoid bases were distinctly lower. Pre-eclampsia is associated with a significant increase in Sms, Cers, sphingosine, sphinganine, 4-OH-sphinganine, sphingosine 1-phosphate and glycosylated sphingosine. Furthermore, a decrease in sphinganine 1-phosphate was found. Stearate (C(18:)(0)) is the dominating fatty acid in Sms and Cers of control tissue. In contrast, pre-eclamptic material contained the highest amount of laurate (C(12:)(0)) in Sms and myristoleate (C(14:)(1)) in Cers.

Sphingolipids and some sphingoid bases are bioactive molecules which contribute to the regulation of signal transduction pathways, protein sorting and mediation of cell-to-cell interactions and recognition. The alteration in sphingolipid content may modify the metabolism of Wharton's jelly, resulting in remodelling of its composition.