Abstract

Maternal nutrition is a crucial and modifiable environmental factor that influences both short-term and long-term health outcomes for mothers and their offspring. Consequently, the increasing consumption of natural products during pregnancy warrants special attention due to the complexity of the largely unknown processes underlying maternal adaptation and fetal development. This study aimed to perform a systematic review of the consumption of polyphenols during pregnancy and its association with maternal-fetal complications in animal models. A systematic search was conducted in databases (PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science), using the MeSH terms: Polyphenols, Pregnancy, and Pathology, without filters. The outcomes selected included fetal malformations, interruptions in fetal and maternal thyroid activity, increased adiposity, abnormalities in serum vascular endothelial growth factor levels, and changes in urea, creatinine, and cystatin C levels, which negatively affected the cellularity of the spleen and the formation of its progeny. Male fetuses exhibited worse developmental patterns compared to the control group and their littermates, along with a significant increase in urea and creatinine levels. This systematic review suggests that the consumption of polyphenols may increase the risk of adverse maternal-fetal outcomes in animal models. Further studies are needed to elucidate the effects of polyphenol consumption and its potential impact.

Keywords

pregnancy, polyphenols, pathology, nutricion, pregnancy complications