ABSTRACT
Background: Pregnancy is a stressful condition accompanied by a high energy demand and increased oxygen requirement. Oxidative stress has been recognized as a significant factor linked to hypertension. Elucidation of anti-oxidant cascade in patients with pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH). can give insights about the oxidative stress and lead to better management of the condition. It was a prospective case control study to elucidate the parameters of oxidative stress in patients with PIH.Methods: Levels of Malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) were eludidated using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in hypertensive mothers and their age matched pregnant and non-pregnant controls to determine the lipid peroxidation and oxidative stress.Results: A total of four hundred and twenty study subjects were enrolled in the study. Malondialdehyde levels from mothers with hypertension were significantly higher than their age matched pregnant controls. The results indicate that oxidative stress induced by pregnancy induced hypertension manifests as increased lipid peroxidation. Conclusion: There is a decrement in anti-oxidant status reflecting the ineffective scavenging of reactive oxygen species resulting in oxidative damage and tissue injury.
ABSTRACT
Background: Inflammation may be one cause of nephrolithiasis and the interleukin-18 (IL-18) encoding gene polymorphisms at +105 A>C has been implicated in several inflammation related diseases. The aim of this study was to test whether IL-18+105 A>C polymorphisms could act as genetic marker for renal stone disease. A case-control study was conducted to observe the genotype distribution of IL-18+105 A>C, to elucidate the possible role of this SNP as risk factor in renal stone development and to examine its correlation with the clinico-pathologic variables. Methods: Using the Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique, we tested the genotype distribution of 160 nephrolithiasis patients in comparison with 200 disease free controls from the same geographical region. Results: We observed significant differences of IL-18+105 A to C between the controls and patients with odds ratio 5.4 (P = 0.001). The prevalence of the variant genotypes AC + CC in the patients was higher than that in the controls (45% v/s 30%) and showed a significant association (P = 0.003). Moreover, the frequency per copy of the C allele of IL-18+105 A>C was found to be implicated more in patient group 0.27 as against only 0.16 in controls (P = 0.0003). Further, males and subjects with <45 years of age in patient group were significantly associated with variant genotype (P <0.05). Conclusion: Thus, it is evident from our study that IL-18+105 A>C is implicated in renal stone disease, and that the rare, C related allele is connected with higher susceptibility to nephrolithiasis.