Abstract
Imbalanced maternal micronutrient status, poor placentation, and oxidative stress are associated with greater risk of pregnancy complications, which impact mother and offspring health. As selenium, iodine, and copper are essential micronutrients with key roles in antioxidant systems, this study investigated their potential protective effects on placenta against oxidative stress. First trimester human placenta explants were treated with different concentrations of selenium (sodium selenite), iodine (potassium iodide), their combination or copper (copper (II) sulfate). The concentrations represented deficient, physiological, or super physiological levels. Oxidative stress was induced by menadione or antimycin. Placenta explants were collected, fixed, processed, and embedded for laser ablation inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA ICP-MS) element imaging or immunohistochemical labelling. LA ICP-MS showed that placenta could uptake selenium and copper from the media. Sodium selenite and potassium iodide reduced DNA damage and apoptosis (p < 0.05). Following oxidative stress induction, a higher concentration of sodium selenite (1.6 µM) was needed to reduce DNA damage and apoptosis while both concentrations of potassium iodide (0.5 and 1 µM) were protective (p < 0.05). A high concentration of copper (40 µM) increased apoptosis and DNA damage but this effect was no longer significant after induction of oxidative stress. Micronutrients supplementation can increase their content within the placenta and an optimal maternal micronutrient level is essential for placenta health.
Highlights
We recently showed that selenium and iodine deficiency are associated with lower cell proliferation and higher cell death and lipid peroxidation in HTR8/SVneo trophoblast cells (Habibi et al, 2020)
Qualitative assessment of micronutrient distributions with laser ablation inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) element imaging showed that supplementation with selenium and copper increased the content of these micronutrients in the placenta explants confirming the micronutrient uptake by explants from the media supplemented with selenium and copper (Figure 1; Supplementary Figures S1 and S2)
Highest uptake of selenium was found in tissues treated with supraphysiological concentration of sodium selenite (1.6 μM) indicated by more red and yellow pixels in the LA-ICP-MS images (Figure 1d–f, Supplementary Figure S1d–f,j–l)
Summary
Maternal nutrition during early pregnancy is critical for fetal growth and development and can impact the future health of the offspring later in life [1,2]. A deficiency or excess in micronutrients such as selenium, copper, and iodine measured in maternal plasma, serum, or urine are associated with a greater risk of pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes mellitus, spontaneous preterm birth, and small-forgestational age [3,4,5,6,7]. The detrimental effects of pregnancy complications are not limited to the pregnancy as their long-term consequences can impact the health of both mother and child later in life [8,9,10]. It is of paramount importance to determine the nutritional risk factors related to pregnancy complications and devise potential preventive strategies
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