Placental oxidative DNA damage and its repair in preeclamptic women with fetal growth restriction

Abstract Preeclampsia is frequently accompanied by fetal growth restriction (FGR). Preeclampsia increases oxygen free radical production, and the resulting oxidative stress impairs placental blood flow. To determine whether placental oxidative stress is associated with FGR in preeclamptic women, we evaluated placental oxidative DNA damage and its repair in 13 preeclamptic women with FGR, 10 preeclamptic women without FGR, and 11 healthy pregnant women without complications. We measured maternal and umbilical serum derivatives of reactive oxygen metabolites (d-ROMs), as a marker of oxygen free radicals, and pulsatility index (PI) of uterine and umbilical arteries, and performed an immunohistochemical analysis to measure the proportion of nuclei in the placental trophoblast that stained positive for 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosin (8-OHdG), an indicator of oxidative DNA damage, and redox factor-1 (ref-1), indicative of the repair function towards oxidative DNA damage. D-ROMs were increased in the maternal blood of both preeclamptic groups (with FGR, 687.3 ± 50.4 CARR U, p