The Impact of Antioxidant Deficiency in Newborns

Dear Colleagues,

Redox homeostasis is a key regulator of several metabolisms. Thus, an imbalance between antioxidant and oxidant molecules has the potential to compromise health. The sources of antioxidants are both endogenous (e.g., enzymes and glutathione) and exogenous (e.g., diet). Similarly, oxidant molecules come from both endogenous metabolism and from the environment.

After birth, newborns are particularly sensitive to oxidative stress due to the fragility of their antioxidant defenses. The extent of this vulnerability depends, among other things, on their gestational age at birth, their sex and their environment. The fact of coming into the world and breathing the surrounding air, which is richer in oxygen than uterine environment, has been reported by several scientists as an oxidative stress with biological impacts. Therapeutic care can also generate oxidative stress—think of oxygen supplementation or parenteral nutrition, which is inherently contaminated with peroxides and aldehydes. To counter the impact of exposure to these oxidants, newborns must have functional antioxidant defenses. A low reserve of essential nutrients to support the antioxidant defenses could explain their great vulnerability to oxidative stress. The quality of the mother’s diet, especially during the last trimester of gestation, as well as the quality of breast milk or formula are crucial.

Imbalance between oxidant and antioxidant molecules compromises the health of the newborn, both at the time of this stress and throughout life. Neonatal oxidative stress has been linked to several diseases affecting different organs (lung, liver, intestine, brain, eye, etc.), compromising their development. In the long term, these infants are susceptible to developing cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, etc. The long-term impact of the imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants in early life may be caused by a neonatal change in organ development and/or permanent epigenetic modifications. Recently, the level of DNA methylation was strongly correlated with the redox value measured in the liver of a newborn animal model.

Exposure to a high level of oxidants is toxic, while a low level of oxidants is necessary to induce endogenous antioxidant defenses; too much exposure to oxidants can induce oxidative stress, while too high an intake of antioxidants could induce reductive stress. This Special Issue of Antioxidants seeks to publish works exploring the impacts of a neonatal deficit in molecules supporting the antioxidant defenses of the newborn, as well as the impacts of antioxidant therapy in this population.

Dr. Jean-Claude Lavoie
Guest Editor

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• antioxidant deficiency
• antioxidant therapy
• epigenetic
• early life
• newborn
• nutrition
• oxidative stress
• redox biology
• reductive stress
• transcription factor