Reproductive age, prematurity and length of maternal and fetal telomere: relationship with neonatal repercussions

Abstract

Introduction: Recent studies have shown oxidative stress may influence the delivery mechanisms, especially for activating the cellular senescence and modify the profile of gene and protein cell expression, which culminates in the activation of labor. In addition, new studies have focused on fetal programming, and maternal health and behaviors during pregnancy may influence neo, perinatal and childhood outcomes. Pregnancies in advanced maternal age are more frequent nowadays, and the knowledge of decreased extent of telomere region is a significant marker of senescence, induces the hypothesis that maternal age can be related to neonatal adverse repercussions, in cases of telomere shortening. Objectives: To evaluate the relationship between telomere length from mother and newborn and maternal age and their association with obstetric and neonatal outcomes. Patients and methods: This is a cross-sectional study in which different maternal ages pregnant women will be included, in the occurrence or not of pre-term labor. Pregnant women will be invited to participate in the study on the first postpartum day, samples will be collected by smear of oral mucous of mothers and their newborns using a sterile swab, stored in specific buffer to preserve the DNA. The samples will be centrifuged and the cell pellet submitted to total DNA extraction using commercial reagents, with further analysis regarding telomere length by relative quantification (T/S) real-time PCR. The demographic data of the patients included in the study, the gestational and the neonatal outcomes will be collected from the medical records analysis. All pregnant women will sign the informed consent. Statistical analysis will be performed in accordance with the conditions determined by the results and the significance level adopted will be 5%.