Xiao J, Yin Y, Shen F, Zhao J, Chen Q
Wuxi Maternity and Child Health Hospital Affiliated Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi, China.
The Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Pregnancy Hypertens. 2012 Jul;2(3):177. doi: 10.1016/j.preghy.2012.04.007. Epub 2012 Jun 13.
Preeclampsia is one of the most common complications of pregnancy, affecting 2-7% of pregnant women. To prevent eclampsia from preeclampsia treatment with magnesium sulphate (MgSO4) is widely used. However the action of magnesium sulphate is unknown.
Although a RCT compared magnesium supplementation with placebo suggested there is no effect on the incidence of preeclampsia, a study showed treatment with MgSO4 reduced the level of IL-6 secretion in maternal circulation of preeclamptic placenta not fetal side [1]. In addition, a most recent study suggests that treatment with MgSO4 inhibited inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6 secretion induced by LPS [2]. Taken together these data suggest MgSO4 may be able to normalise IL-6 actions and secretion. IL-6 level is elevated in preeclamtic women, therefore in this study we investigated whether maternal MgSO4 treatment inhibit IL-6 secretion in women with preeclampsia.
Twenty two preeclamptic women and 71 gestation matched health women were included in this study. The definition of preeclampsia is followed by ACOG guideline. The gestation of preeclamptic women in this study was 26-38 weeks. The blood samples of preeclamptic women were taken before and after MgSO4 administration and the serum level of IL-6 was measured by ELISA kit (BD).
The serum level of IL-6 in preeclamptic women (24.59pg/ml) was significantly increased before MgSO4 administration compared to gestation matched health pregnant women (11.1pg/ml). However the serum level of IL-6 was significantly reduced after MgSO4 administration (19.8pg/ml), but sill higher than gestation matched health pregnant women.
Although the mechanism of magnesium sulphate is incompletely understood, our date consist with recent findings and suggest that it may act through the regulation of the level of IL-6 secretion which plays an important role in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia.
