Molecular and Cellular Research in Pregnancy-Related Complications 2.0

Dear Colleagues,

Reproductive complications, maternal and fetal morbidity, and mortality are common attributes of non-favorable pregnancies. The detection of at-risk pregnancies in early gestation is a challenging task for developing corrective and curative strategies.

Biomarkers in maternal circulation have been explored to evaluate risk in early pregnancy, but thus far, they are only reliable for the diagnostics of rather limited pregnancy complications.

Recent studies highlight the role of systemic and placental oxidative stress as an essential factor in the etiology of early pregnancy losses. Trophoblast invasion under low-oxygen conditions and hypoxia-induced oxidative stress are important regulators of the physiological development of the placenta and embryo in early pregnancy. Nonetheless, when oxidative stress exceeds the normal physiological level in the maternal–fetal environment, orchestrated by blood cell damage, accelerated senescence and early eryptosis, complications such as miscarriage, pre-eclampsia and limited intrauterine development may occur.

The imbalance of immune tolerance at the maternal–fetal interface is another important factor in the occurrence of pregnancy loss. The immunologic events at the maternal–fetal interface in early pregnancy are complex, involving numerous immune cells and molecules.

A promising approach for investigation of the placenta and placental–fetus interaction comes from the fact that trophoblast cells could migrate from the placenta into the reproductive tract, and could then be collected and separated from maternal cells for the analysis of fetal proteins, DNA, RNA and other informative molecules.

This Special Issue aims at expanding the current knowledge on the structural and behavioral imbalance of peripheral and endometrial immune cells, red blood cells, trophoblasts, decidual cells and stem cells in pregnancy-related complications. Experimental studies and reviews are welcome for submission.

More published papers can be found in the closed Special Issue “Molecular and Cellular Research in Pregnancy-Related Complications”.

Prof. Dr. Regina Komsa-Penkova
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• pregnancy loss/miscarriage
• pregnancy complications
• pre-eclampsia
• maternal–placental–fetal interactions
• trophoblast
• immune cells
• immune tolerance
• red blood cells
• oxidative stress
• blood and fetal proteins
• DNA
• RNA
• stem cells