Background: Pregnancy consists of complicated physiological moments. The placenta, rich in mitochondria, provides sufficient nutrients for the development of foetal tissues and organs of the embryo. Consequently, increased amounts of reactive species are formed, moreover antioxidant defences are reduced, resulting in oxidative stress. Premature and excessive oxidative stress (OS) activation in pregnancy might lead to numerous diseases and problems, both for the mother and the foetus.
Methods: In the master's thesis we applied the method of reviewing professional and scientific literature connected to PubMed and Google Scholar databases. The literature was searched from June 2021 to January 2022. We used the key phrases: “oxidative stress in pregnancy”, “IUGR and oxidative stress” and “preeclampsia and oxidative stress”, as well as restrictive criteria: publication time of articles from 2010 to 2020, available abstract, manuscript accessible free of charge and additionally the type of study: clinical studies, meta-analyses, randomized control studies and review articles.
Results: 25 articles have been filed in the final analysis. We identified 7 content categories: general pathophysiological impact of oxidative stress on pregnancy, preeclampsia, miscarriage, foetal growth restriction, molar pregnancy, prenatal psychological stress, and epigenetic patterns. We generated 67 codes.
Conclusion: During pregnancy, placental development is related to O2 concentration. Reactive oxygen species have both physiological functions (regulate gene transcription and downstream activities such as trophoblast proliferation, invasion, and angiogenesis), as well as pathophysiological functions (placenta-mediated diseases such as preeclampsia, miscarriage, placental abruption, and others). In various animal models, researchers have observed that during pregnancy oxidative stress is associated with the early development of foetal endothelial dysfunction. This phenomenon suggests that endothelial dysfunction may begin in uterus and could later in life raise the risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, and others.
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