Research
Research summary
Chronic fetal hypoxia is one of the most common consequences of complicated pregnancy, such as during placental insufficiency and preeclampsia. Chronic fetal hypoxia increases oxidative stress in the fetal heart and circulation and programmes cardiovascular disease in the adult offspring. Therefore, maternal treatment with antioxidants, such as vitamin C, prevents the programming of cardiovascular dysfunction in adult offspring in rodent and ovine models of pregnancy complicated by chronic fetal hypoxia. However, in those studies, only high doses of vitamin C were effective, which are incompatible with human treatment. Therefore, there is an interest in alternative antioxidant therapy which is translational to the human clinical setting to ameliorate the programmed effects of cardiovascular dysfunction in the adult offspring by complicated pregnancy. My research investigates the effect of alternative antioxidant therapies on the fetal cardiovascular system during hypoxic development.