Abstract

Kidney diseases are common health problems around the world. Preeclampsia is defined by American college of obstetrics and gynecologists (ACOG) as a pregnancy specific hypertensive disease with multisystem disorder. It usually occurs after 20th week gestation most often near term and can be superimposed on another hypertensive disorder. Micro RNAs (miRs) are little, non-coding RNAs with 22 nucleotides in length with important functions in adjusting many biological processes. The gene for human miR- 206 is centralized on chromosome 6 in a bicistronic group jointly with the gene for miR-133b; gene IL-17 is downstream of 206/133b cluster. The aim of our study is to determine the change in the expression of miRNAs 206 and 133b in the placentae of preeclamptic females and in serum IL-17 and correlate them to the severity of preeclampsia. The present study was conducted on 80 pregnant females divided into 2 groups: Group I: which included 40 preeclamptic females and Group II controls which included 40 normotensive pregnant females. Both miRNA 206 and miRNA 133b are highly expressed in the placentae of preeclamptic Egyptian patients compared to the controls. Micro RNA 206 with 95% sensitivity and specificity, while Micro RNA 133b sensitivity was 90% and specificity was 95%, thus providing promising evidence that the expression of both parameters can be used as diagnostic markers for preeclampsia. The placental expression of miRNA 206 and miRNA does not seem to correlate to the severity of the condition. Similarly, serum level of interleukin 17 which was found to be increased in preeclampsia patients, and does not seem to correlate to the severity of the condition.