DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2015.v03i04.019

Pages: 1703-1706

Pregnancy is associated with increased oxidative stress, and exaggeration of oxidative damage is considered responsible factor in pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia. There is, however, only little information regarding the longitudinal change of oxidative stress during pregnancy, so the main objectives of the study to find out the status of lipid peroxidation product (MDA) & antioxidants enzymes (like GPx and SOD) in pregnant vs. non- pregnant women.A cross sectional hospital based study, comprised of 30 normal pregnant women (third trimester) as cases and 30 healthy non pregnant women as controls. Malondialdehyde (MDA) and enzymatic antioxidant Glutathione peroxidase (GPx), Superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels were determined by using spectrophotometric methods. MDA and GPx levels were found to be highly significant (p value <0.001) higher in cases than controls. SOD was also found significantly (p value <0.01) higher when compared to controls. In normal pregnancies, there is an increase in free radical production and lipid peroxidation towards the end of pregnancy when compared with non-pregnant women. In a parallel fashion, total antioxidant capacity gradually increases during pregnancy, leading to oxidative balance maintained throughout pregnancy.