The effect of obesity on oxidative stress parameters in pregnant women

Objective: In recent years, there has been a growing concern about obesity in public since it is known to reduce fertility in women and increase the duration of conception. Maternal obesity is also related to adverse pregnancy outcomes affected by placental malfunction. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to compare levels of oxidative stress between obese and normal weight women in the second trimester. Method: We assessed lipid peroxidation by measuring the thiobarbituric acid reactive species (TBARS) as well as antioxidant defense system by measuring the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and catalase (CAT) enzymes in 50 obese women (body mass index, BMI:36.60±4.95) and 51 normal weight women (BMI:24.51±3.47). Results: An increased lipid peroxidation and SOD enzyme activity were determined in obese pregnant women compared to normal weight women. Also, we found a significantly positive correlation (r:0.286, p:0.0435) between BMI and TBARS level as well as a significantly negative correlation (r: -0.421, p: 0.002) between TBARS level and SOD enzyme activity. No significance difference was observed between two groups in CAT and GPx enzymes activities. Conclusion: According to our results, although increased SOD enzyme activity has reflected that antioxidant defense system is activated cope with the increased production of reactive oxygen species, maternal obesity is induced oxidative stress via increased lipid peroxidation. Hence, maternal obesity induced-oxidative stress in the second trimester should be followed up by clinicians since it may cause oxidative damage in the placenta during pregnancy.