Effects of arginase genetic polymorphisms on nitric oxide formation in healthy pregnancy and in preeclampsia

Prophylaxis of decidual CD68+/CD163+ macrophage disbalance in extracorporeal fertilized women

The demographic crisis that prevailed in Ukraine in recent years, the state of war as a result of the aggression of the Russian Federation, reproductive losses among women of childbearing age are one of the most urgent problems in modern obstetrics and gynecology. One of the most effective methods of correcting impaired reproductive function is in vitro fertilization.

The purpose of this work

is to develop a pharmacological complex for the prevention of imbalance of CD68+/CD163+ decidual macrophages in vitro fertilized women.

Materials and methods

105 pregnant women who were divided into 3 groups took part in the study. The first group included 20 women whose pregnancy occurred and is proceeding physiologically. The second group consisted of 85 women who became pregnant as a result of in vitro fertilization, including 37 pregnant women who refused prophylactic correction of the threat of premature birth, and 48 pregnant women who received prophylactic correction of the threat of premature birth: complex prescription of vitamin D3 2000 IU orally 2 times a day, micronized progesterone 200 mg 2 times a day and l-arginine aspartate 1000 mg 4 times a day, starting from 18 to 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Results

In women who refused prophylactic correction of the threat of premature birth, a local increase in the activity of inducible NO-synthase and concentration of tumor necrosis factor-α, and a decrease in the activity of arginase and in the level of interleukin-10 were observed in the cervical mucus. They have a lower expression of CD163+ on placental decidual macrophages and an increased expression of CD68+, which indicates a shift in the polarization of macrophages from an anti-inflammatory to a pro-inflammatory phenotype. The use of prophylactic treatment brings the studied parameters closer to the results of women in whom pregnancy occurred physiologically.

Conclusions

In women who became pregnant as a result of in vitro fertilization, at 28-30 weeks of pregnancy, changes specific for pro-inflammatory phenotype of decidual macrophages were observed. Complex administration of vitamin D3, micronized progesterone and l-arginine aspartate lead to restoration of anti-inflammatory phenotype of decidual macrophages.

Association between endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene variants and nitric oxide production in preeclampsia: a case-control study in Ghana

Evidence suggests that a major cause of PE is endothelial dysfunction emanating from the reduced bioavailability of Nitric oxide (NO). Variants of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene may lead to decreased NO levels. We explored the association between eNOS gene variants and nitric oxide levels among preeclamptic women in the Ghanaian population. This case-control study included 75 preeclamptic women and 75 healthy normotensive pregnant women attending antenatal care at the Nkawie-Toase Government Hospital, Ghana. A well-structured questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic, obstetric and clinical data. Blood was obtained for DNA extraction; the gene variants were determined using PCR and RFLP. Preeclamptic women had significantly lower NO concentration compared to the normotensives (p < 0.0001) and was significantly different between VNTR variants (p < 0.0001). A significant difference in VNTR intron 4 distribution was also observed between the preeclamptic and normotensive women with 4c4c" (12.0%) and "4a4c" (1.3%) genotypes found predominantly in preeclamptic women (p < 0.0001). There was significantly higher distribution of "TC" genotype in preeclamptic women (44.0%) compared to normotensives (22.7%) (p = 0.019). However, possessing "4a4b" (cOR: 0.17, 95% CI 0.04-0.64) and "4b4b" (cOR: 0.09, 95% CI 0.02-0.38) significantly decreased the likelihood of experiencing preeclampsia by 83% and 91% respectively. Nitric oxide is reduced in preeclamptic women. NO levels in preeclampsia are altered by VNTR intron 4 variants but not T786C variants. Possessing VNTR intron 4 "4b" allele decreases the risk of PE while the "4c" allele increases the risk of PE. There is the need for eNOS variant screening and nitric oxide estimation among pregnant women for early prediction of women at risk of preeclampsia.

ARG2 single-nucleotide polymorphism rs3742879 affects plasma arginase 2 levels, nitric oxide formation and antihypertensive therapy response in preeclampsia

Aim: This work examined whether ARG1 (rs2781659, rs2781667, rs2246012 and rs17599586) and ARG2 (rs3742879 and rs10483801) single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are associated with antihypertensive therapy responsiveness in preeclampsia (PE) and their effects on arginase isoforms and nitrite concentrations in responsive and nonresponsive patients. Methods: SNP genotypes were determined by TaqMan assays. Plasma arginase levels were measured by ELISA and nitrite concentrations were measured using an ozone-based chemiluminescence assay. Results: The G allele for ARG2 rs3742879 (A>G) was less frequent in nonresponsive compared with responsive patients (15.5% vs 24.7%) and the G carriers of the nonresponsive subgroup had lower arginase 2 (9.2 ± 7.5 ng/ml vs 19.1 ± 17.3 ng/ml) and higher nitrite concentrations (110.2 ± 52.8 nM vs 78.5 ± 37.9 nM) than carriers of the AA genotype (all p < 0.05). Conclusion: ARG2 SNP rs3742879 is associated with diminished arginase 2 levels and increased nitric oxide formation in nonresponsive PE patients.

The Mechanism of Downregulation of Twist1 Inhibiting Trophoblast Invasion and Aggravating the Development of Preeclampsia

To study the expression of under expressed transcription factor Twist1 in preeclampsia (PE) and its effect on the invasion of placental trophoblast cells and to explore its related mechanism on the development of PE by establishing a pregnant rat model. Methods: the villi were collected from the induced abortion in the first trimester (6–8 weeks), the normal placenta (18–20 weeks) induced by the second trimester, the term placenta tissue of normal pregnancy (37–40 weeks), and the placental tissue of patients with PE, to detect the expression of Twist1. Trophoblast cells were subjected to primary culture in placental tissues of normal pregnant women and placental tissues of PE patients. The invasion ability of the two groups of trophoblasts was detected, and the primary cultured trophoblasts were divided into two groups: an experimental group and a control group. Specific Twist1 siRNA was added to the experimental group, and no reagents were added to the control group. The above-mentioned cells were given different interventions. To explore the effect of Twist1 on trophoblast cell invasion, cells were cultivated for 72 h. The SD rats were conceived. After the pregnancy was stable, the SD rats in different groups were treated with different treatments (interference with Twist1), and the average systolic blood pressure and urine protein of the gestational mothers in the different treatment groups were measured at 1 week, 2 weeks, and full-term pregnancy. The expression of Twist1 in the placenta tissue of SD rats with different interventions at full-term pregnancy was detected. The results showed that Twist1 expression is down-regulated in PE, and the invasion ability of placental trophoblast cells in PE patients is weak. After inhibiting Twist1, the mean tail artery pressure and urine protein level of SD pregnant rats increase, showing a trend of PE. The mechanism may be related to the inhibition of the placenta by Twist1 Trophoblast cell invasion.

Common variants in AGR1 genes contributed to the risk and traits of cirrhotic cardiomyopathy in Han Chinese population

Aim: This study aimed to determine the association between polymorphisms of the ARG1 gene and the risk and traits of cirrhotic cardiomyopathy (CCM). Methods: A total of 468 CCM and 1012 cirrhosis patients were enrolled, and 12 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the ARG1 gene were genotyped. Differences in genotype, allele and haplotype frequencies of the SNPs between the CCM and cirrhosis groups were analyzed by chi-square test. Correlations of the genotypes of SNPs and representative traits of liver and heart function were performed using linear regression analysis. Results: SNPs rs2781666 and rs2781667 were associated with the risk of CCM in both dominant and additive inheritance models. The GG genotype frequency of rs2781666 and CC genotype frequency of rs2781667 were lower in the CCM group than in the cirrhosis group. The G-C haplotype frequency of the block consisting of rs2781666 and rs2781667 was higher and the T-T haplotype frequency was lower in CCM patients than in cirrhosis patients. SNP rs2781666 was associated with the alanine transaminase level, and rs2781667 was associated with the ARG1 level and left atrial diameter. Conclusion: SNPs rs2781666 and rs2781667 in the ARG1 gene were associated with susceptibility to and traits of CCM in the Han Chinese population.

C1431T Variant of PPARγ Is Associated with Preeclampsia in Pregnant Women

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) is essential for placental development, whose SNPs have shown increased susceptibility to pregnancy-related diseases, such as preeclampsia. Our aim was to investigate the association between preeclampsia and three PPARγ SNPs (Pro12Ala, C1431T, and C681G), which together with nine clinical factors were used to build a pragmatic model for preeclampsia prediction. Data were collected from 1648 women from the EDEN cohort, of which 35 women had preeclamptic pregnancies, and the remaining 1613 women had normal pregnancies. Univariate analysis comparing preeclamptic patients to the control resulted in the SNP C1431T being the only factor significantly associated with preeclampsia (p < 0.05), with a confidence interval of 95% and odds ratio ranging from 4.90 to 8.75. On the other hand, three methods of multivariate feature selection highlighted seven features that could be potential predictors of preeclampsia: maternal C1431T and C681G variants, obesity, body mass index, number of pregnancies, primiparity, cigarette use, and education. These seven features were further used as input into eight different machine-learning algorithms to create predictive models, whose performances were evaluated based on metrics of accuracy and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). The boost tree-based model performed the best, with respective accuracy and AUC values of 0.971 ± 0.002 and 0.991 ± 0.001 in the training set and 0.951 and 0.701 in the testing set. A flowchart based on the boost tree model was constructed to depict the procedure for preeclampsia prediction. This final decision tree showed that the C1431T variant of PPARγ is significantly associated with susceptibility to preeclampsia. We believe that this final decision tree could be applied in the clinical prediction of preeclampsia in the very early stages of pregnancy.