Objective: Preeclampsia (PrE) is a pregnancy-related disorder. PrE affects the health of the mother and/or the fetus binomial with short and/or long-term consequences. The role of oxidant/antioxidant molecules and aberrant maternal inflammation in PrE has been documented. However, the importance of antioxidant molecules such as thiols has been poorly documented. In this research, a possible link between serum thiols levels and the diagnosis/severity of late-onset PrE (L-PrE) was investigated.
Materials and methods: We examined maternal serum native thiols, disulfide, total thiols levels, and their ratios in pregnant women with (n = 51) and without L-PrE (n = 50). The levels of these three markers were measured using spectrophotometric assays and compared.
Results: There were significant differences in terms of serum native and total thiols levels between patients with L-PrE and healthy pregnant women (p = .001, p = .008, respectively). Disulfide levels were not different in either group (p = 0.729). There was no difference between total thiols, native thiols, disulfide concentrations, and their ratios in patients with mild (23 patients) and severe (27 patients) preeclampsia in L-PrE (p ≥ .05). A significant discriminative role of native and total thiols for the presence of L-PrE, with cutoff values of 175.86 μmol/L and 296.73 μmol/L, respectively, were revealed in ROC curve analysis.
Conclusions: Lower concentrations of total/native thiols were linked with the development of L-PrE. However, there is still a need for more clinically useful biomarkers/molecules and management strategies in PrE.
Keywords: RNS; ROS; integrated stress response; placental perfusion; pre-eclampsia biomarkers; syncytiotrophoblast stress response.