Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Department of Pediatrics, University of Messina, Via Consolare Valeria, 98125 Messina, Italy.
Unit of Pediatric Genetics and Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Messina, Via Consolare Valeria 1, 98125 Messina, Italy.
Oxid Med Cell Longev. 2013;2013:980374. doi: 10.1155/2013/980374. Epub 2013 Nov 19.
Oxidative stress contributes to the severity of several newborn conditions to the extent that Saugstad coined the phrase "oxygen radical diseases of neonatology." In order to counteract free radicals damage many strategies to augment antioxidant status in ill-term and preterm infants have been proposed and several medications have been experimented with mixed results. Several studies have tested the efficacy of melatonin to counteract oxidative damage in diseases of newborns such as chronic lung disease, perinatal brain injury, necrotizing enterocolitis, and retinopathy of prematurity, giving promising results. The peculiar perinatal susceptibility to oxidative stress indicates that prophylactic use of antioxidants as melatonin could help to prevent or at least reduce oxidative stress related diseases in newborns. However, more studies are needed to confirm these beneficial effects.
氧化应激是导致多种新生儿疾病严重程度的原因之一，以至于 Saugstad 创造了“新生儿儿科学的氧自由基疾病”这一术语。为了对抗自由基损伤，人们提出了许多增加早产儿和未成熟儿体内抗氧化状态的策略，并对几种药物进行了实验，结果喜忧参半。一些研究已经测试了褪黑素在治疗新生儿疾病（如慢性肺病、围产期脑损伤、坏死性小肠结肠炎和早产儿视网膜病变）中的抗氧化损伤的功效，结果令人鼓舞。新生儿在围产期对氧化应激的特殊易感性表明，预防性使用抗氧化剂（如褪黑素）可能有助于预防或至少减少新生儿的氧化应激相关疾病。然而，还需要更多的研究来证实这些有益的效果。
