Increasing of LDH Specific Activity and PEPCK Level Play a Role on Activation of Gluconeogenesis Pathway in Early Onset Pre-Eeclampsia Placenta

Background: Recent advancement on experiment concluded that etiology of pre-eclampsia (PE) could be explained by the two-stage theory. The theory of which explained that pre-eclampsia occurs due to abnormalities in spiral arteries development and release of inflammatory response. Failure of spiral arteries development, the lesion of damage could be due to ischemia-reperfusion or hypoxia-reoxygenation. Hypoxia in pre-eclamptic placenta leads to metabolic change to anaerobic in glycolysis. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) has important role in anaerobic glycolysis that catalyzes the conversion of lactate to pyruvate during hypoxia. On the other hand, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxy kinase (PEPCK) is merely an enzyme of gluconeogenesis. This research conduct to reveal that in early onset pre-eclampsia the placenta still hypoxic and undergoes gluconeogenesis even after delivery, through metabolic enzyme of LDH and PEPCK level. Methods: This cross-sectional study compared early onset PE ( 34 weeks) with normal term placenta. We measured LDH enzyme activity using colorimetric assay and PEPCK protein using ELISA method. Results: Result show that placental LDH specific activity was increased significantly in PE with median 2.750 (0.030 - 5.680) U/mg compared to normal term placenta 0.255 (0.032 – 1.194) U/mg (Mann-Whitney, p 0.001). PEPCK level was significantly increased in PE 8.998 (1.737-44.914) ng/mg compared to normal term placenta 1.552 (0.741-8.832) ng/mg (Mann-Whitney, p 0.001). Conclusions: We conclude that anaerobic glycolysis and gluconeogenesis pathway are increased in early onset PE placenta as adaptation mechanism to hypoxic condition.