Hypertensive Pregnancy Supports Higher Adaptation of Stress Over Anemic Pregnancy: A Pilot Study

Hypertension and anemia are the expected risk factors for fetal development and mother's health during pregnancy. This study targets relative stress adaptation in pregnancy between hypertension and anemia. This study has been conducted on three types of pregnancies viz. regular, hypertensive and anemic pregnancy. The data obtained were compared against normal healthy controls. Blood pressure was monitored to label hypertensive pregnancy. Lipid profile was the severity marker for hypertensive subjects. Low hemoglobin and MCV levels were used as marker for anemia. Glycemic profile was verified by plasma glucose concentration to exclude diabetic subjects. BMI was calculated to exclude obesity. Commercially available ELISA based kits were used to see the expression of stress protein markers viz. PERK and NF-kB. This study has been focused on the limits of expression of adaptive and alarming genes during the phase of pregnancy. PERK(P) expression was considered to evaluate adaptation status and NF-kB(N) expression to denote alarming stature. The values were compared against normal healthy controls. The relative adaptation index (P/N ratio) was found quite high at third trimester in cases of both hypertensive and anemic pregnancy as compare to the regular pregnancies having no anemia or hypertension. Comparatively more adaptation was notified in cases of hypertensive subjects over anemic counterpart. This study shows that the maintenance of pregnancy is naturally protected with enormous adaptive power by counteracting adverse stress factors like hypertension or anemia. Hypertensive subjects had even more adaptive power than anemic subjects in pregnancy time.