Evaluation of serum soluble FAS and soluble FAS ligand in maternal and cord blood of preeclamptic mothers

ABSTRACT

Preeclampsia is a potentially life-threatening disease for both mother and fetus. It remains one of the most important causes of maternal and fetal mortality and morbidity in developing countries. Fas-FasL pathway of apoptosis is abnormally activated in diseases associated with impaired immune tolerance or chronic inflammation. We hypothesize that preeclampsia might be associated with abnormal activation of the Fas-FasL pathway. We reported the results of an ELISA-based quantitation of soluble Fas and soluble Fas ligand in the maternal and cord blood sera of 20 gestations complicated by preeclampsia and of 20 normal control gestations. Our results establish the presence of higher soluble FasL levels in maternal [254.4 +/- 146.7 pg/mL] and cord blood sera [217.7 +/- 53.6 pg/mL] of preeclamptic mothers in comparison to their levels in normal control mothers [199.0 +/- 88.5pg/mL and 130.6 +/- 51.5 pg/mL] In contrast, soluble Fas levels were similar in both groups. We found a statistically significant difference for soluble FasL serum levels in maternal and cord blood of preeclamptic mothers when compared with normal controls [p = 0.016 and 0.024]. For soluble Fas the differences were not significant