Oxidative stress and antioxidants in reproductive health and disorders – Special Issue

Infertility affects 15% of couples worldwide and is a major health issue. One of the primary reasons for infertility is oxidative stress (OS), which is defined as an imbalance in the amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidants. In case of male reproduction, physiological functions of sperm, especially capacitation, hyperactivation, and acrosomal reaction, require a modest level of ROS. However, excessive ROS generation can inactivate vital enzymes and oxidize proteins in spermatozoa, lipid peroxidation or DNA damage, leading to infertility. Major sources of ROS include immature spermatozoa, inflammatory agents, genetic mutations, and altered sex hormone levels. In case of female reproduction, existing literature suggest that ROS affect oocyte development, maturation, follicular atresia, corpus luteum function, and luteolysis. Mechanisms of OS-mediated female reproductive tract disorders resemble those of male infertility to a substantial extent. Since OS is caused by deficiency in antioxidants, adopting a healthier lifestyle and taking antioxidant supplements are used as conventional treatment for OS-mediated infertility.
This special issues aims to highlight the physiological ROS generation, genetic and epigenetic influences on OS and infertility; and also to present an updated in-depth insight on the mechanism involved in OS-induced infertility, including lipid peroxidation, DNA damage, hormone profile imbalance, inflammation, etc. Finally, the special issue intends to discuss the beneficial impacts and limitations of using antioxidants in treating male and female infertility.

Themes:
Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:
● Oxidative stress in male and female infertility
● Systemic diseases and reproduction: oxidative stress as the key player
● Endocrine disruption, oxidative stress and reproduction
● Infection, inflammation and oxidative stress in reproductive pathophysiology
● Antioxidants in the mitigation of oxidative stress induced reproductive disorders

Editors

Dr Pallav Sengupta and Dr. Sulagna Dutta

 Important Dates

Full Article Submission date- April 15, 2023
Issue completion date – June 1, 2023

Submission

Interested scholars should submit their article (prepared according to author guidelines in the journal article template) on the journal site https://pubs.thesciencein.org/journal/index.php/jist 

Authors should submit their article manuscript directly to guest editors for preliminary editorial processing.

Participating Journal

Journal of Integrated Science and Technology

https://pubs.thesciencein.org/journal/index.php/jist