Pregnancy is a unique condition where the maternal immune system is continuously adapting in response to the stages of fetal development and signals from both internal and external environments. The exposure to the environmental toxicants can lead to adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as miscarriage, preterm birth, preeclampsia, and low birth weight. Environmental toxicants not only affect pregnancy outcome, but there are also major concerns in terms of the offspring’s health outcome. Numerous studies have shown that maternal exposure to pesticides, air pollution and viral infection causes neurological disorders in the offspring. It is now recognized that increasing exposure to environmental toxicants during pregnancy, such as air pollution, viral infection, heavy metal contamination, poses a major threat to the pregnant woman and her offspring.
However, the action of these various environmental toxicants and their underlying mechanisms are still poorly understood. To contribute to greater understanding of this aspect, we will collect research articles or reviews on how environmental toxicants affect the pregnancy and offspring health. For more details, the associated subtopics could be: 1) toxicants and ovary function; 2) toxicants and the endometrium/decidua; 3) toxicants and placenta; 4) toxicants and pregnancy complications (preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and more); 5) toxicants and embryo development/fetal growth (organ specific-heart, lung, thymus, spleen and more); 6) toxicants and fetal hematopoiesis; 7) susceptibility to toxicants during different stages of pregnancy (early pregnancy: first trimester vs. late pregnancy: third trimester); 8) toxicants and offspring phenotypes including metabolic, immunologic, endocrine, and more; 9) the signaling pathways induced by toxicants which are responsible for the offspring phenotypes; 10) effect of maternal and early life exposures on the offspring later-life diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease and risk for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer Disease; 11) epigenetics of early-life exposures and effect on brain development; 12) effect of maternal and early life exposures on the offspring reproductive health in adulthood.
There are many kinds of environmental toxicants that can be considered in this collection, including, but not limited to air pollutants, toxic chemicals, heavy metals, viruses and bacteria. Moreover, both in vitro organoids and animal models have proven to be a useful tool for toxicity studies and provided fundamental information for medical knowledge, we encourage researchers to use different animal models in the study, including different species (mouse, rat, zebrafish and more), different organoid models, different exposure methods (inhalation, oral, injection and more), and different exposure doses (consideration of the human exposure in the real-life environment).
Authors can contribute their original findings or summarize the advanced studies in the field as a review. The goal is to help our readers to better understand the action of these environmental toxicants and the underlying mechanisms, with the potential to propose effective preventive strategies and therapies for the well-being of maternal and offspring health.
Pregnancy is a unique condition where the maternal immune system is continuously adapting in response to the stages of fetal development and signals from both internal and external environments. The exposure to the environmental toxicants can lead to adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as miscarriage, preterm birth, preeclampsia, and low birth weight. Environmental toxicants not only affect pregnancy outcome, but there are also major concerns in terms of the offspring’s health outcome. Numerous studies have shown that maternal exposure to pesticides, air pollution and viral infection causes neurological disorders in the offspring. It is now recognized that increasing exposure to environmental toxicants during pregnancy, such as air pollution, viral infection, heavy metal contamination, poses a major threat to the pregnant woman and her offspring.
However, the action of these various environmental toxicants and their underlying mechanisms are still poorly understood. To contribute to greater understanding of this aspect, we will collect research articles or reviews on how environmental toxicants affect the pregnancy and offspring health. For more details, the associated subtopics could be: 1) toxicants and ovary function; 2) toxicants and the endometrium/decidua; 3) toxicants and placenta; 4) toxicants and pregnancy complications (preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and more); 5) toxicants and embryo development/fetal growth (organ specific-heart, lung, thymus, spleen and more); 6) toxicants and fetal hematopoiesis; 7) susceptibility to toxicants during different stages of pregnancy (early pregnancy: first trimester vs. late pregnancy: third trimester); 8) toxicants and offspring phenotypes including metabolic, immunologic, endocrine, and more; 9) the signaling pathways induced by toxicants which are responsible for the offspring phenotypes; 10) effect of maternal and early life exposures on the offspring later-life diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease and risk for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer Disease; 11) epigenetics of early-life exposures and effect on brain development; 12) effect of maternal and early life exposures on the offspring reproductive health in adulthood.
There are many kinds of environmental toxicants that can be considered in this collection, including, but not limited to air pollutants, toxic chemicals, heavy metals, viruses and bacteria. Moreover, both in vitro organoids and animal models have proven to be a useful tool for toxicity studies and provided fundamental information for medical knowledge, we encourage researchers to use different animal models in the study, including different species (mouse, rat, zebrafish and more), different organoid models, different exposure methods (inhalation, oral, injection and more), and different exposure doses (consideration of the human exposure in the real-life environment).
Authors can contribute their original findings or summarize the advanced studies in the field as a review. The goal is to help our readers to better understand the action of these environmental toxicants and the underlying mechanisms, with the potential to propose effective preventive strategies and therapies for the well-being of maternal and offspring health.
