Visfatin gene expression and oxidative stress in pregnancy induced hypertension

Preeclampsia, a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy, was related to hypertension, diabetes, oxidative stress, obesity, in addition to polycystic ovarian diseases. Visfatin, potentially a new adipokine has emerged having high contribution in pathogenesis of preeclampsia. Oxidative stress was increased lipid peroxidation and caused vascular endothelial damage. This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the level of visfatin gene expression in placenta and measuring some oxidative stress parameters. Eighty Egyptian patients of newly diagnosed pregnant hypertensive disorder were selected for the study which was recruited from Mansoura University Hospital, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and also normotensive pregnant women were collected. The pregnant women groups were classified into four groups: gestational hypertension (n = 20), mild preeclampsia (n = 16), severe preeclampsia (n = 25), chronic hypertension with superimposed preeclampsia (n = 19) and compared with normotensive pregnant women (n = 10) as control group. Visfatin gene expression level was decreased in placenta of pregnant hypertensive disorder women groups with mean 1.28 ± 0.42, 1.01 ± 0.24, 0.40 ± 0.14 and 0.32 ± 0.11 respectively when compared to normotensive pregnant women with mean 1.56 ± 0.69. Additionally, catalase activity, total antioxidant capacity and reduced glutathione levels were decreased in hypertensive pregnant women groups compared with normotensive ones. On the other hand malondialdhyde level was increased in preeclampsia groups when compared with normalized pregnant women. Decreased visfatin level has an important pathophysiology of preeclampsia and suggests the complication in pregnancy. Also the imbalance between oxidant and antioxidant has an important causative factor in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia.