Abstract Oxidative stress and systemic inflammatory response can emerge at the same time, exacerbate the effect of the other, and cause irreversible damage. In addition to the fundamental role of oxidative stress in the pathophysiology of preeclampsia, molecular evidence of high levels of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is also found. Searches were conducted by two independent researchers in international (PubMed, Web of science, Scopus and Google scholar) and national (SID, Magiran) databases for related studies from the inception of the databases to September 2017 (without time limitation) in English and Persian languages. To ensure literature saturation, the reference lists of included studies or relevant reviews identified through the search were scanned. The specific search strategies were created by a Health Sciences Librarian with expertise in systematic review search using the MESH terms and free terms according to the PRESS standard. The most important lesion of the pairs in preeclampsia is acute atherosclerosis of decidua arteries. This lesion is partly due to the abnormal alignment between the spiral arteries and the cytotrophoblast that causes insufficient ventilation. This can lead to inadequate blood supply, which causes oligohydramnios, intrauterine growth retardation, pairing, fetal distress, and ultimately fetal death.
Keywords oxidative stress, pathophysiology, preeclampsia.