Expression of urotensinII and nitric oxide in placenta of patients with preeclampsia.

Objective:To investigate the expression of urotensinII(UII) and nitric oxide(NO) in placenta of preeclampsia patients and their roles in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia.Methods:Expression of UII mRNA in placenta from 45 cases of pre eclamp sia(22 women with mild preeclampsia and 23 women with severe preeclampsia) and 20 cases of normal term pregnant women was detected by semi-quantitative RT-PCR;The concentration of NO in placental tissues was assayed by nitrite reductase.Results:Expression of UIImRNA 0.85±0.40 in placenta of severe preeclampsia was significantly higher than in normal pregnancy 0.38±0.30(P0.05);The expression of UII mRNA were not different between mild preeclampsia 0.64±0.31 and normal pregnancy(P0.05).The concentration of NO in placenta of mild 114.42±6.52 u/mg and severe preeclampsia 79.22 ±3.31 u/mg were both significantly higher than that in normal pregnancy 241.36±13.24u/mg(P0.05).Conclusion:The expression of UII mRNA is increased and the concentration of NO is sup-pressed in women with preeclampsia,which might play an important role in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia.