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Potential effects of nutrients on placental function and fetal growth.

Intrauterine nutritional deficits can trigger adaptation mechanisms with modifications that can predispose an individual’s later life to various pathologies (cardiovascular, metabolic, endocrine). It is difficult to individualize both the nutrient or nutrients responsible for the damage and the relation between cause and effect quantitatively (nutritional effect entity) and timing (time lag for the start of the pathology). It is therefore not easy to prove that placental function and fetal growth can be deeply influenced by specific nutrients rather than by variation in the intake of calories, that is to say by nutrition as a whole. Furthermore, every country, except the developing ones, has particular nutritional habits. As a consequence of that, recommendations worked out in some geographical areas with specific nutritional deficit may not be so efficacious as in other areas where this deficit is not as evident (for instance the administration of folic acid in the Mediterranean area). The results of recently reported studies focus attention on: (1) soluble gas such as nitric oxide (NO) which, as has been demonstrated, can affect both placental function and fetal growth, also taking into consideration that its effects can be mediated both by drugs and nutrients, (2) adequate antioxidant status during pregnancy could prevent and control those mechanisms induced by maternal oxidative stress that could lead to both impaired placental function and fetal growth. Hornstra G, Uauy R, Yang X (eds): The Impact of Maternal Nutrition on the Offspring. Nestlé Nutrition Workshop Series Pediatric Program, vol 55, pp 73–82, Nestec Ltd., Vevey/S. Karger AG, Basel, © 2005.