Dietary and Antioxidant Vitamins Limit the DNA Damage Mediated by Oxidative Stress in the Mother–Newborn Binomial

Abstract

During pregnancy, appropriate nutritional support is necessary for the development of the foetus. Maternal nutrition might protect the foetus from toxic agents such as free radicals due to its antioxidant content. In this study, 90 mothers and their children were recruited. DNA damage mediated by oxidative stress (OS) was determined by the levels of 8-hidroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) in the plasma of women and umbilical cord blood. The mothers and newborns were categorised into tertiles according to their 8-OHdG levels for further comparison. No relevant clinical differences were observed in each group. A strong correlation was observed in the mother–newborn binomial for 8-OHdG levels (Rho = 0.694, p < 0.001). In the binomial, a lower level of 8-OHdG was associated with higher consumption of calories, carbohydrates, lipids, and vitamin A (p < 0.05). In addition, the levels of 8-OHdG were only significantly lower in newborns from mothers with a higher consumption of vitamin A and E (p < 0.01). These findings were confirmed by a significant negative correlation between the 8-OHdG levels of newborns and the maternal consumption of vitamins A and E, but not C (Rho = −0.445 (p < 0.001), −0.281 (p = 0.007), and −0.120 (p = 0.257), respectively). Multiple regression analysis showed that the 8-OHdG levels in mothers and newborns inversely correlated with vitamin A (β = −1.26 (p = 0.016) and −2.17 (p < 0.001), respectively) and pregestational body mass index (β = −1.04 (p = 0.007) and −0.977 (p = 0.008), respectively). In conclusion, maternal consumption of vitamins A and E, but not C, might protect newborns from DNA damage mediated by OS.

The Effect of Dietary Patterns and Nutrient Intake on Oxidative Stress Levels in Pregnant Women: A Systematic Review

“…The publication dates range from 2001 to 2022. The majority of the studies used a cohort study design (69%) [13,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25], while 23% employed a cross-sectional design [26][27][28], and only one study had a case-control design [4]. The study sample sizes ranged from 33 to 1158, totaling 5088 healthy women included in this systematic review, aged between 19 and 40 years.…”

“…Participants' BMI ranged between 18 and 35, and they were enrolled between 0 and 39 weeks of gestation. Two studies were omitted to report the gestational age of the participants at enrolment [23,28]. [15]).…”

“…2022 [22] Isoprostane MS Hwang, J. 2021 [24] MDA [µmol/g creatinine] HPLC Matsuzaki, M. 2014 [25] Biopyrrin [µmol/g creatinine] ELISA Matsuzaki, M. 2014 [25] CoQ10 [ng/mL] HPLC Diaz-Garcia, H. 2022 [23] Blood (Plasma) 8OHdG [ng/mL] ELISA Lopez-Yañez Blanco A. 2022 [27] MDA [µmol/L] Colorimetric (TBARS) Lopez-Yañez Blanco A.…”

“…As per the 24 h recall method, Kim et al [18] used a single recall, while all the other studies utilized three recalls [4,[19][20][21]. The majority of the questionnaires have been administered during each trimester [4,[19][20][21]25], three studies took into consideration the second trimester [13,22,26], and two studies referred to the third trimester [23,25,27]. Three studies did not specify the reference period of the questionnaire [26,28].…”

“…Dietary exposure was assessed using a questionnaire in all the included studies. Five of them [13,19,22,24,26] were able to identify dietary patterns starting from the questionnaire, while the others [4,18,20,21,23,25,27,28] assessed the consumption of fruit and vegetable, fat, and vitamins, expressed as g/day or g/1000 kcal.…”