Abstract
The present study was undertaken to: i) Determine the levels of oxidative stress (OS) markers, malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide anions (SOA) and hydrogen peroxide (H
2
O
2
), in both plasma and placental tissues of recurrent miscarriage (RM) patients in comparison with those of healthy pregnant (HP) and non-pregnant (NP) women; ii) determine the levels of enzymatic antioxidants [glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase (GSR), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT)], and non-enzymatic antioxidant micronutrients [selenium (Se), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu) and manganese (Mn)] in both plasma and placental tissues of RM patients, in comparison with those of HP and NP women; iii) profile differential expression levels of selected antioxidant and apoptosis-related genes in the placental tissues of RM cases, in relation to those of HP women of matched gestational age, using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). The results revealed highly significant increases of all investigated OS markers in plasma and placental tissues of RM patients compared with those of HP women. Moderate, but significant, increases of OS markers were observed in the plasma of HP patients in relation to those of NP women. The activities of antioxidant enzymes exhibited statistically significant decreases in both plasma and placental tissues of RM patients compared with those of HP women. The significantly reduced level of antioxidant enzymes was also evident in the plasma of HP women as compared with those of NP women. Results of RT-qPCR assays clearly indicated that the expression level of apoptosis-related genes [tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (
TRAIL
) and
S100A8
], and pro-inflammatory cytokine genes [tumor necrosis factor-α (
TNF-α
), interleukin (
IL)-6
and
IL-8
] were significantly upregulated in placental tissue of RM cases in relation to those of HP subjects. By contrast, mRNA transcriptional levels of key antioxidant genes (
GPx, SOD, GSR
and
CAT
) were found to be significantly reduced in placental tissue of RM patients in comparison to those of HP women. In conclusion, our data highlight a plausible cause-effect association between the observed increase in placental OS level and depletion of the activity of antioxidant enzymes. This suggests that OS is a contributing factor in the pathogenesis of idiopathic RM.