Maternal and fetal serum nitric oxide (NO) concentrations in normal pregnancy, pre‐eclampsia and eclampsia

Abstract

(1) Serum nitric oxide (NO) production is increased in normal pregnancy than in the normal non-pregnancy. (2) Maternal and fetal serum NO levels are increased significantly in pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, which possibly represents a compensatory/protective mechanism to maintain blood flow and limit platelets aggregation in the fetal-maternal circulations. (3) The increase in NO production is directly related to the severity of pre-eclampsia; this would be of diagnostic significance for the prediction of the severity of this syndrome.

The Pharmacology of Nitric Oxide in the Peripheral Nervous System of Blood Vessels

“…On the other hand, despite the circulatory disorder, the NOS activity and the amount of NO metabolites (nitrate and nitrite) in the placenta and plasma were increased in pre-eclampsia and eclampsia compared with those in normal pregnancy (Norris et al, 1999;Benedetto et al, 2000;Shaamash et al, 2000Shaamash et al, , 2001Yanik et al, 2001). The increases were directly related to the severity of this disorder; thus they are considered to be diagnostic indicators (Benedetto et al, 2000;Shaamash et al, 2000).…”

“…The increases were directly related to the severity of this disorder; thus they are considered to be diagnostic indicators (Benedetto et al, 2000;Shaamash et al, 2000). Such an increase in the formation of NO possibly represents a physiologic adaptive response to overcome the increased placental vascular resistance and to minimize platelet and leukocyte adhesion to the surface of placental villi (Shaamash et al, 2001).…”

PPAR‐γ – a possible drug target for complicated pregnancies

“…While pregnancy is associated with an increase in NO levels, studies have yielded conflicting results as to whether nitrite/nitrate (NOx; metabolites of NO) levels are increased (Smarason et al, 1997;Shaamash et al, 2000), decreased (Var et al, 2003;Aydin et al, 2004) or unchanged (Davidge et al, 1996;Daniel et al, 1998;Conrad et al, 1999) relative to normotensive pregnancies in pre-clampsia. In addition, asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) levels (an endogenous inhibitor of NOS) are increased in pre-clampsia compared with normotensive pregnancies (Fickling et al, 1993;Savvidou et al, 2003).…”

Recent Progress Toward the Understanding of the Pathophysiology of Hypertension During Preeclampsia

“…11,12,17,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] Because NO is an important physiological vasodilator in normal pregnancy, it follows that NO deficiency during preeclampsia has been implicated in the disease process. 18,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] Although numerous studies indicate chronic NOS inhibition in pregnant rats produces hypertension associated with peripheral and renal vasoconstriction, proteinuria, intrauterine growth restriction, and increased fetal morbidity, 11,12,25 it is unclear whether an NO deficiency occurs in women with preeclampsia. Much of the uncertainty in this area of research originates from the difficulty in directly assessing the activity of the NO system in the clinical setting.…”