Damages from radicals have been implicated in the pathogenesis of pregnancy-induced hypertention(PIH), and in this article we investigated whether changes in antioxidant enzymes are related to radical-induced injury. We assayed the activity of
antioxidant enzymes(superoxide dismutased, catalase, glutathione peroxidase) in erythrocytes and placentas which were obtained from 35 womenwith PIH, and from 20 pregnant womenwith normal blood pressure. The activity of superoxide dismutase(SOD)
decreased significantly in the blood and placenta of patients with PIH, compared with normotensive pregnant women. In the placenta of the PIH group, manganese containing superoxide dismutase(Mn-SOD) decreased also, while the activity of catalase
increased. The activity of copper zine containing superoxide dismutase(Cu,Zn-SOD) and glutathione peroxidase(GPX) did not change significantly in comparison to the placenta of the normotensive group. The levels of malondialdehyde(MDA) increased
significantly in the placenta of patients with PIH.
From these results, we can assume that the decrease of enzyme activity, such as the SOD in blood, and the Mn-SOD and GPX in placenta, induces oxidiative stress to the placenta of patients with PIH.
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