Concentrations of Antioxidant Vitamins in Maternal and Cord Serum and Their Effect on Birth Outcomes

Abstract

Summary Background: Emerging evidence indicates that maternal oxidative stress during pregnancy could impair fetal growth and that antioxidant vitamins (e.g. vitamins A, E and C) have a significant role in miantaining physiological processes of pregnancy and growth. Aims: To determine the concentrations of vitamins A, E, and C in pair-matched maternal and cord serum samples of neonate, and thus to investigate the relationship between maternal serum levels of these vitamins at delivery and birth outcomes. Methods: A total of 143 mother-neonate pairs were recruited into the cross-sectional descriptive study. Demographic information was investigated by questionnaire. After delivery, both cord and maternal blood were collected for quantification of serum levels of vitamins A, E and C by HPLC. Results: Maternal serum levels of vitamins A and E were significantly higher than those in cord serum. In contrast, vitamin C level in cord serum was significantly higher than that in maternal serum. Further, we found that maternal vitamin A status was significantly correlated to both birth weight ( r ϭ 0.19, p ϭ 0.0419) and birth height ( r ϭ 0.21, p ϭ 0.0311), and these were manifested by these findings: (i) per 250.2 g reduction in birth weight concomitant with 1 mol/L increase in maternal serum vitamin A level ( p Ͻ 0.01; 95% CI: 56.9-451.5); and (ii) per 1% increase in the ratio of serum vitamin A level of neonate to mother concomitant with 0.8 cm increase in birth height ( p ϭ 0.049; 95% CI: 0.004-1.639). Conclusion: Maternal vitamin A, but not vitamins E and C, during pregnancy had a significant effect on birth outcomes. Further studies are necessary to investigate the role of these antioxidant vitamins in fetal growth at various gestation stages.

Maternal Supplementation with <em>RRR</em>-&alpha;-Tocopherol (400 IU) and Its Relationship with Serum and Breast Milk Retinol

“…The baseline serum alpha tocopherol levels of the study control and supplemented groups were similar to the levels reported by other studied similar populations [4,26,27]. However, the study results are higher than those reported by Rodriguez et al [28], but the difference may stem from the population studied by the latter, namely, a population living in poverty with terrible health indicators.…”

Serum lipid peroxide and antioxidant vitamins (E, C) in neonates with respiratory distress syndrome

“…The role of anti-oxidant vitamins (C and E) in the maintaining of physiological process of fetal growth during pregnancy was reported by Wang et al (2009). Brion et al (2003) confirmed that preterm infants have lower antioxidant vitamins in their serum compared with term controls.…”

Maternal–cord blood vitamin C status and its relation to fetal growth and placental apoptosis

“…This result corroborates with previous studies that found similar findings, they explained their results by that placenta is permeable to dehydroascorbic acid but not to ascorbic acid then the fetus converts dehydroascorbic acid to ascorbic acid and accumulates it. 15,16 Also increased vitamin C levels in cord blood could be due to fetal synthesis of vitamin as dehydroascorbic acid, the oxidized form of ascorbic acid, that is reduced to L-ascorbic acid by fetal erythrocytes that gets trapped in the fetal circulation. 17 In our study a positive significant correlation between vitamin C levels of mothers and cord blood vitamin C levels was detected.…”