Oxidative stress in small-for-gestational age (SGA) term newborns and their mothers

Abstract

This study used malondialdehyde (MDA) determination by HPLC and enzymatic assays for total serum peroxides and antioxidant capacity to evaluate oxidative stress in 47 healthy full-term small-for-gestational age (SGA) newborns vs 67 appropriate-for-gestational age (AGA) newborns. Blood samples were collected at delivery from umbilical cord artery and vein and from peripheral blood of the babies on the third day after birth. Blood samples of mothers were also collected and compared with blood of 29 normal non-pregnant women (NPW). Serum peroxide values were significantly higher in both groups of mothers than in NPW, decreasing towards the third day in AGA mothers, while persisting in SGA mothers. Antioxidant capacity of sera of both groups of mothers was lower than NPW. Both SGA mothers and babies had increased MDA at delivery, unlike AGA counterparts. MDA levels in umbilical vein were higher than in umbilical arteries, while immunohistochemistry revealed abundant presence of 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE)-protein adducts only in stroma of the SGA placenta. These results show that both mothers and babies are exposed to oxidative stress during and after delivery, which is more pronounced and persistent in the perinatal period of the SGA group, while lipid peroxidation in placenta could play a role in SGA pathophysiology.

Multivitamin and mineral supplementation modulates oxidative stress and antioxidant vitamin levels in serum and follicular fluid of women undergoing in vitro fertilization

“…These free radical-generating agents include histamine, bradykinim, angiotensin, prostaglandins (PG), eicosanoids, proteolytic enzymes, nitric oxide, and superoxide (1). Oxidative stress is also particularly important for the development of the placenta and fetuses in case of small-forgestational-age pregnancies and the mothers (6). The copper and zinc superoxide dismutase transcripts are present in human and mouse oocytes at germinal vesicle and metaphase II stages and GSH-Px and manganese superoxide dismutase transcripts are detected in mouse and human metaphase II oocytes (7).…”

Mitochondrial DNA in Placenta: Associations with Fetal Growth and Superoxide Dismutase Activity

“…However, data on the link between prenatal growth restriction and placental mtDNA copy number in uncomplicated, term pregnancies resulting in the delivery of small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infants are scarce and controversial, mainly because the studied cohorts were heterogeneous and the assessments were performed at different timings (during or after delivery) and in different conditions (either in cord blood samples or in placental tissue). In addition, none of the available reports have simultaneously assessed the mtDNA content and enzymatic activities [14,17,18,19,20,21]. …”

Lipid peroxidation, detoxification capacity, and genome damage in mice after transplacental exposure to pharmaceutical drugs

“…HNE is known to act as a bifunctional, concentration- and cytokine-dependent growth regulator that might also affect glutathione metabolism and trigger hormetic antioxidant responses to severe stress (37), which might eventually be involved in consequential lowering of liver MDA, as was observed in the study. It is worth mentioning also that placental HNE was found recently to be related to reduced fetal growth rate in humans (38), but such analyses could not have been done in the current study, due to technical limitations of the immunohistochemical method based on mice monoclonal antibodies (39). However, in future studies we will try to extend the present study also in this direction and evaluate the possible involvement of HNE in the toxicity of drugs crossing the transplacental barrier.…”