Abstract: Objective To evaluate the correlation between serum and placenta liver X receptorα（LXRα）expression as well as its target gene sterol regulatory element-binding protein-1c（SREBP-1c）and abnormal lipid metabolism in pre-eclampsia（PE）patients. Methods The blood and placenta samples were collected from PE group（n=32）,normal pregnancy group（n=30）and normal unpregnancy group（n=30）. PE group included 15 cases of mild preeclampsia（MPE）and 17 cases of severe pre-eclampsia（SPE）. Serum total chelosterol（TC）,triglyceride（TG）,very low density lipoprotein（VLDL-C）,low density lipoprotein（LDL-C）and high density lipoprotein（HDL-C）in each group were quantified. Atherosclerosis index（AI）was calculated as（TC-HDL-C）/HDL-C.The mRNA and protein levels of oxidized LDL（oxLDL）,LXRαand SREBP-1cwere measured by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction（RT-PCR）,enzyme-linked immune sorbent assay（ELISA）or immunohistochemistry（IHC）method.Results Compared with the normal pregnancy group,serum levels of TC （6.78±1.56）vs（5.20±0.96）mmol/L,TG （3.92±1.35）vs（2.48±0.78）mmol/L,VLDL-C （1.85±0.53）vs（1.12±0.35）mmol/L,LDL-C（4.31±1.23）vs（3.01±0.55）mmol/Land AI（3.10±1.22 vs 1.88±0.74）were significantly higher,while HDL-C was lower（P＜0.01 or P＜0.05）in PE group. The mRNA and protein expressions of oxLDL,LXRαand SREBP-1cincreased gradually and differed significantly between normal pregnancy,MPE and SPE groups（P＜0.01 or P＜0.05）. Correlation analysis showed that serum LXRαwas positively correlated with serum SREBP-1c,TC,TG and AI,but negatively correlated with HDL-C. Conclusion The expressions of LXRαand SREBP-1c were obviously enhanced in serum and placenta,which can mediate lipid metabolism disorders in matrix and placenta,as well as vascular endothelial cell injury.