MECHANISMS IN ENDOCRINOLOGY: Nutrition as a mediator of oxidative stress in metabolic and reproductive disorders in women

Nutrition can generate oxidative stress and trigger a cascade of molecular events that can disrupt oxidative and hormonal balance. Nutrient ingestion promotes a major inflammatory and oxidative response at the cellular level in the postprandial state, altering the metabolic state of tissues. A domino of unfavorable metabolic changes is orchestrated in the main metabolic organs, including adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, liver and pancreas, where subclinical inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, mitochondrial deregulation and impaired insulin response and secretion take place. Simultaneously, in reproductive tissues, nutrition-induced oxidative stress can potentially violate delicate oxidative balance that is mandatory to secure normal reproductive function. Taken all the above into account, nutrition and its accompanying postprandial oxidative stress, in the unique context of female hormonal background, can potentially compromise normal metabolic and reproductive functions in women and may act as an active mediator of various metabolic and reproductive disorders.