Placental and systemic oxidative stress with an imbalance in the oxidant/antioxidant activity seems to play a central role in the pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia. The aim of our study was to examine whether two missense polymorphisms of the extracellular superoxide dismutase (SOD3) gene (Arg213Gly and Ala40Thr) are associated with pre-eclampsia in a Caucasian population from Hungary.One hundred and fifty-nine pre-eclamptic patients and 114 normotensive, healthy pregnant women were involved in this case-control study. The SOD3 Arg213Gly and Ala40Thr genotypes were determined using the polymerase chain reaction-restriction length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and allele-specific amplification methods.The Arg213Gly variant was not detected in our population. There were no significant differences in the genotype and allele frequencies of the SOD3 Ala40Thr polymorphism between pre-eclamptic patients and control subjects. However, the mutant allele carriers of this polymorphism showed an increased risk for severe fetal growth restriction-complicated pre-eclampsia, which was independent of maternal age, prepregnancy BMI, primiparity and smoking status (OR: 6.07, 95% CI: 1.33-27.8, p=0.020; adjusted OR: 4.89, 95% CI: 1.03-23.2, p=0.046).Our results suggest a role of SOD3 Ala40Thr single nucleotide polymorphism in the risk of severe fetal growth restriction-complicated pre-eclampsia. However, further studies are needed with a larger sample size to confirm our findings and to explore the exact molecular basis of this observation.