Lipid Peroxidation and Antioxidant Status in Maternal and Cord Blood

Abstract

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 µmol/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.

Changes in the Rate of Lipid Peroxidation in Plasma and Selected Blood Antioxidants before and during Pregnancy in Ewes

“…An elevation of various indices of oxidative stress during the physiological course of pregnancy has been shown (Arikan et al 2001;Djordjevic et al 2004;Little and Gladen 1999). During pregnancy, oxidative stress has been associated with reproductive problems such as pre-eclampsia and abortion (Little and Gladen 1999;Poston and Raijmakers 2004).…”

“…In rats and humans, high concentrations of lipid peroxidation products have been measured in normal pregnancy, but controversial information has been available on the oxidative and antioxidative status in normal pregnancy (Arikan et al 2001;Little and Gladen 1999;Djordjevic et al 2004;Nakai et al 2000;Yoshioka et al 1987). Numerous studies compared healthy pregnant and non-pregnant women (Arikan et al 2001;Djordjevic et al 2004;Nakai et al 2000); all found greater lipid peroxide concentrations in the pregnant women.…”

“…Numerous studies compared healthy pregnant and non-pregnant women (Arikan et al 2001;Djordjevic et al 2004;Nakai et al 2000); all found greater lipid peroxide concentrations in the pregnant women. The plasma MDA concentrations in pregnant women in the third trimester were significantly higher than in the non-pregnant women (Arikan et al 2001;Djordjevic et al 2004;Nakai et al 2000). Peroxidation in the third trimester was significantly higher than in the first and second trimesters (Carine et al 1993;Djordjevic et al 2004).…”

“…Some studies have reported an increase of the GSH-Px in pregnancy (Djordjevic et al 2004;Uotila et al 1991), yet others have indicated either no significant change (Arikan et al 2001;Balal et al 2004;Nakai et al 2000;Naziroglu et al 2004) or a reduction (Behne and Wolters 1979). The reports on GSH concentrations during pregnancy are also controversial: some investigators showed an increase (Németh et al 2001;Wisdom et al 1991), whereas others reported a decrease (Arikan et al 2001) or no significant change (Naziroglu et al 2004) during pregnancy. Németh et al (2001) suggested that an increased GSH concentration in pregnant women was an adaptation to maintain the adequate redox milieu of the red blood cells.…”

“…While pregnancy is considered to be a physiological event, the alterations in the biochemical status in pregnancy and pregnancy complications, such as pre-eclampsia, eclampsia, abortion, premature birth or hypertension, have gained importance considering the influence of lipid peroxidation on these processes (Arikan et al 2001). In literature, information about the oxidant and antioxidant status before and during pregnancy in ewes is quite limited (Oztabak et al 2005).…”