The objective was to determine the presence and severity of placental apoptosis in pre-eclampsia. The study included 31 patients. All patients were divided into 2 groups: group I (treatment) included 11 pregnant women with preeclampsia, group II (control) - 20 healthy patients. Gene expression was evaluated with qPCR assay, and placental apoptosis was assessed by the TUNEL method. It was found that the level of placental apoptosis in preeclampsia patients was significantly higher compared to that of apparently healthy females, and in some cases stem villi are destroyed due to programmed cell death in the villous stroma and syncytiotrophoblast. In preeclampsia, oxidative stress leads to increased levels of apoptosis in placental villi. Both trophoblast cells and, in certain cases, cells of the villous stroma are subject to apoptosis.