Study of the molecular variation in pre-eclampsia placenta based on micro-Raman spectroscopy

Purpose Study of the molecular variation in pre-eclampsia placenta based on micro-Raman spectroscopy. Methods Five pregnant women with pre-eclampsia from Nanfang hospital were selected as study group whose average age is 28.5 years and 38 +/- 2 weeks gestation. The same period of healthy pregnant women, whose average age is 27.6 years and pregnant 39 +/- 1 weeks, as control group (n = 5). The normal and pre-eclamptic placental tissues are detected by micro-Raman spectroscopy with the spectrum resolution of 1 cm(-1). Results We find that the protein structure of alpha-helix, beta-pleated sheet and beta-turn is overlying in pre-eclamptic placenta, which lead to a disorder of protein structure. The Raman peaks assigned to tryptophan indole ring and phenylalanine in pre-eclamptic placental tissue are more higher than that in normal tissue. Conclusions Results suggest that the ordered structures of the main chain in protein molecules are reduced significantly, and the amino acid of side chains is damaged obviously. And a principal component analysis is used to classify the Raman spectra between normal and pre-eclamptic placental tissues. This study presents that Raman spectroscopy has a great potential on the mechanism research and diagnosis of placental lesions.