| Antibodies Against
Oxidized Low Density Lipoproteins in Pregnant
Women
L.
FIALOVÁ, L. MIKULÍKOVÁ1, I.
MALBOHAN, O. BENEŠOVÁ2,
S. ŠTÍPEK, T. ZIMA1, A. ZWINGER2
First Institute of Medical Chemistry and
Biochemistry, 1Institute of Clinical
Biochemistry, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles
University and 2Institute for Mother and Child
Care, Prague, Czech Republic
Received December 21, 2000
Accepted November 23, 2001
Summary
Oxidized low density lipoproteins
(oxLDL) formed in vivo induce a humoral immune
response. Oxidative modification of LDL renders
it immunogenic and a heterogeneous population of
specific anti-oxLDL antibodies is produced. These
antibodies could represent a biological marker of
oxidative stress and serve as markers of
atherosclerosis. Autoantibodies against oxLDL
(oLAb) have been detected in human subjects
practically of every age. oLAb also appear in the
blood of pregnant women. Some studies have shown
that the levels of antibodies to oxLDL were
elevated in women with established preeclampsia.
The present study was aimed to estimate the oLAb
IgG levels in the first and second trimester of
pregnancy. Furthermore, we estimated the
correlation between maternal serum (MS) levels of
oLAb and alpha-1-fetoprotein (MS AFP), human
chorionic gonadotrophin (MS HCG) and
trophoblast-specific-beta-1-glycoprotein (MS
SP1), because these proteins are determined as a
part of prenatal biochemical screening for fetal
congenital abnormalities. Our study deals with
the oLAb changes in women with pregnancy-induced
hypertension. We also investigated the
correlation between oLAb IgG and anticardiolipin
antibodies IgG (ACA) in the serum of pregnant
women. We examined 40 pregnant women attending
Institute for Mother and Child Care for their
antenatal care as outpatients. Routine blood
samplings between the 9-13th week of pregnancy
and 16-18th week of pregnancy were performed as a
part of biochemical prenatal screening for fetal
congenital abnormalities (Group 1). Their mean
age was 27±4.1 years. Furthermore, we examined
26 women in the second or third trimester with
pregnancy-induced hypertension (Group 2). Group 2
was compared with 49 pregnant women in the second
or third trimester who were normotensive (Group
3). We used commercial standardized ELISA kits
for determination of oLAb IgG, ACA IgG, MS AFP
and MS HCG, MS SP1 was analyzed by single radial
immunodiffusion. We did not find any differences
in the levels of oLAb IgG in the first and second
trimester in the women of Group 1. The
correlation between oLAb and ACA IgG was not
statistically significant (Spearman coefficient
r=0.22, p=0.1). The correlation between oLAb IgG
with MS AFP, MS HCG and MS SP1 was not
statistically significant. Weak negative
correlation for AFP and HCG was suggested both in
the first and in the second trimester. The levels
of oLAb IgG in the group of women with
pregnancy-induced hypertension were significantly
lower than in the group of normotensive women
(348±388 U/ml v.s. 579±400 mU/ml, p<0.01).
We can conclude that the levels of oLAb do not
differ in the first and second trimester of
gravidity. However, we cannot exclude the
possible influence of an inverse relationship
between oLAb IgG titers and the synthesis of
fetoplacental antigens. This finding is important
especially in the context of the results of
prenatal biochemical screening. Pregnancy-induced
hypertension is associated with lower levels of
oLAb. Weak cross-reactivity between oLAb and
anticardiolipin antibodies may exist but there is
a possibility that there are two different
populations of antibodies reacting with various
antigens.
Key
words
Antibodies
against oxidized low density lipoproteins · Pregnancy · Alpha-1-fetoprotein · Human chorionic
gonadotrophin ·
Trophoblast-specific-beta-1-glycoprotein
Reprint
requests
L. Fialová, M.D., Ph.D., First Institute of
Medical Chemistry and Biochemistry, Charles
University, Kateřinská 32, 121 08 Prague 2,
Czech Republic. E-mail: fial@lf1.cuni.cz
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