Plasma nitric oxide, endothelin-1 and urinary nitric oxide and cyclic guanosine monophosphate levels in hypertensive pregnant women.

OBJECTIVE: To compare serum levels of nitric oxide (NO) and endothelin-1 (ET-1), and urinary concentrations of NO and cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) between preeclamptic and normotensive pregnant women. METHOD: Ninety-one preeclamptic (48 mild, 43 severe) and forty healthy normotensive pregnant women above 32 gestational weeks were recruited into study. Chemiluminesence technique was used for measuring plasma and urinary NO levels, and radioimmunoassay was used to determine plasma ET-1 and urinary cGMP levels. RESULT: Plasma and urinary NO, and urinary cGMP levels were significantly lower in preeclamptics than in the control group (respectively, p< 0.001, p< 0.001, p< 0.01). Plasma ET-1 levels were significantly higher in the preeclamptics than in the control group (p<0.001). There were significant negative correlations between plasma ET-1, plasma NO and urinary NO and cGMP in all groups. There were positive correlations between plasma NO, urinary NO and cGMP in all groups. CONCLUSION: The imbalance between NO and ET-1 may play a significant role in the pathophysiology of preeclampsia.

Lipid peroxidation and antioxidant status in maternal and cord blood.

The present study was undertaken to determine the change of blood lipid peroxide and antioxidant status in healthy nonpregnant women (n = 20), pregnant women in the third trimester (n = 20), pregnant women during delivery (n = 26) and fetal cord blood. Plasma and erythrocyte malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were found to be significantly higher and erythrocyte glutathione (GSH) levels were significantly lower in pregnant women in the third trimester than in nonpregnant women (p < 0.02, p < 0.03 and p < 0.001, respectively). The highest plasma and erythrocyte MDA levels and the lowest GSH levels were obtained from the pregnant women during delivery (6.99 +/- 2.35 nmol/ml, 283.20 +/- 43.81 nmol/g Hb, 6.73 +/- 2.34 micromol/g Hb, respectively). Erythrocyte glutathione peroxidase (GSH-P) and glutathione reductase (GSH-R) activities were not different between the groups. Maternal plasma and erythrocyte MDA levels were significantly correlated with cord blood plasma and erythrocyte MDA levels (r = 0.63, p < 0.001, and r = 0.41, p < 0.001, respectively). There was a significant positive correlation in GSH-R and in GSH-P activities between maternal and cord blood erythrocytes (r = 0.81, p < 0.001, and r = 0.79, p < 0.001, respectively). A significant correlation was found between maternal erythrocyte GSH-P and both cord blood erythrocyte GSH-R activities (r = 0.74, p < 0.001) and cord erythrocyte GSH levels (r = 0.73, p < 0.001). There was also a significant negative correlation between maternal erythrocyte MDA and cord erythrocyte GSH-R levels (r = -0.9, p < 0.001). Our results suggest that lipid peroxidation and antioxidant status may be changed during delivery, and these changes may affect the fetus by creating oxidative stress.