Antioxidants improve vascular function in children conceived by assisted reproductive technologies: A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial

Abstract

Antioxidant administration to ART children improved NO bioavailability and vascular responsiveness in the systemic and pulmonary circulation. Collectively, these findings indicate that in young individuals ART-induced vascular dysfunction is subject to redox regulation and reversible.

Prevention of vascular dysfunction and arterial hypertension in mice generated by assisted reproductive technologies by addition of melatonin to culture media

“…This favorable effect appears to be related, at least in part, to prevention of ART-induced epigenetic alterations of the regulation of the eNOS gene. There is evidence that ART-induced vascular dysfunction in humans may be related to a similar mechanism (22). We speculate that the modification of the culture media may allow the prevention of ART-induced premature atherosclerosis in humans.…”

“…Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) represent a recent important example of this problem, since ART induces vascular and cardiac dysfunction in children (26,33,34) and causes premature vascular aging and arterial hypertension that are associated with a shortened life span in mice (20). Consistent with observations in humans suggesting that decreased nitric oxide [nitrate/nitrite (NOx)] bioavailability contributes to vascular dysfunction in the offspring of ART (22), data in ART mice indicate that epigenetic alterations of the endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene that translate into decreased vascular eNOS expression and NOx synthesis underpin premature vascular aging and arterial hypertension (20). There is increasing evidence that suboptimal embryo culture conditions contribute to ART-induced epigenetic alterations (6,12,15), as evidenced, for example, by the fact that current culture media used for ART are unable to maintain genomic imprinting of in vitro embryos (15).…”

Effects of perinatal, late foetal, and early embryonic insults on the cardiovascular phenotype in experimental animal models and humans

“…These alterations also appear to play a role in humans; in a recent study, we showed that 4-week daily oral administration of antioxidant vitamins C and E increased plasma NO bioavailability, normalized FMD and attenuated hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction at high altitude in ART children but had no detectable eff ect on control children [74].…”

Rationale and design of the Hunting for the off-target propertIes of Ticagrelor on Endothelial function and other Circulating biomarkers in Humans (HI-TECH) trial

“…Therefore, we evaluated the endothelial function using the FMD jointly to the EndoPAT technology (Fig. 3), only in one study center-Bern University Hospital, Switzerland, with large prior experience with this methodology (28)(29)(30)(31). Description of technical procedure is reported in the Suppl.…”