Perinatal and Prenatal Disorders

This book describes the role of free radicals and antioxidants (i.e., oxidative stress) in prenatal and perinatal disorders currently explored in clinical and pre-clinical trials. It also examines basic research in health and disease. There is increasing evidence that oxidative stress is a causative, or at least a supporting, factor that impacts organisms and causes numerous prenatal disorders.§§The chapters cover the gamut of oxidative stress as related to a variety of factors, including fertility, metabolism, redox biomarkers, antioxidant defense and protection, gene polymorphisms, angiogenesis, cell signaling, mutations and oxidative damage involving lipids, proteins and nucleic acids, membrane trafficking, inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, alterations in immunological function, hypoxia, and post-natal stressors. This will provide a single book where topics on prenatal development are presented comprehensively and will keep the clinician and research scientist up-to-date on translational research into medical applications, which in turn should lead to new ideas and improved health care. Perinatal and Prenatal Disorders is the latest volume in Springer s well-known Oxidative Stress in Applied Basic Research and Clinical Practice series.§§