Effect of Post COVID-19 hypoxia on Placenta of Pregnant Women: A possible Role of Hypoxia Inducible Factor-1α. | ||
Egyptian Journal of Medical Microbiology | ||
Article 12, Volume 34, Issue 2, April 2025, Pages 105-110 PDF (487.58 K) | ||
Document Type: New and original researches in the field of Microbiology. | ||
DOI: 10.21608/ejmm.2024.343956.1399 | ||
Authors | ||
Fatma Y. A. Abbas1; Ebtihal A. Abd-Elaziz1; Fatma M. Helbawi2; Asmaa Y. A. Abbas3; Fatma S. Abd-Elsamea* 4; Tohamy A. Tohamy5; Ahmed M. Abbas6 | ||
1Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University | ||
2Department of Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University | ||
3Department of Histology and Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University | ||
4Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University | ||
5Medical Research Center, Assiut University | ||
6Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University | ||
Abstract | ||
Background: The hypoxia-inducible factors (HIF) are considered master regulators of oxygen homeostasis and are oxygen level sensitive. Currently, there is no information regarding the expression of HIF-1α in pregnant women with COVID-19 infection and its potential involvement in the placentation of this condition. Objective: The current study aims to detect the expression of HIF-1α and possible molecular link between the expression of HIF-1α and PLGF. Methodology: A case-control study was conducted in a tertiary university hospital between January and September 2022. Placental tissue of post COVID-19 infected pregnant women (n= 34) and healthy control (n=16) were collected and processed for gene expression of HIF-1α and PLGF by Quantitative real-time PCR. Results: There was a statistically significant higher median level of HIF-1α among cases compared to controls (P<0.001). Moreover, there was a statistically significant higher median level of PLGF among cases compared to controls (P<0.001). There was statistically significant moderate positive correlation between HIF-1α and PLGF gene (r=0.636, P <0.001) among studied samples, however no statistically significant correlation between the two genes among cases and controls groups separately. Conclusion: the higher levels of HIF-1α and PLGF in the placentas of post COVID-infected pregnant women compared to normal pregnant women indicate that COVID-19 hypoxia did not affect the process of placentation. This is confirmed also by the positive correlation between | ||
Keywords | ||
COVID-19; hypoxia; HIF-1α; PIGF | ||
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