Molecular Mechanism of Fetal Developmental Toxicity

Adverse environments during pregnancy, such as exposure to xenobiotics, can disrupt normal fetal development and lead to developmental toxicity. Various physiological and pathological factors can interact to allow xenobiotics to enter the fetal blood circulation through the maternal-placental pathway and induce developmental toxicity through abnormal cell proliferation and apoptosis, oxidative stress, drug metabolism activation damage, and abnormal epigenetic modifications. Fetal developmental toxicity can result in fetal distress, neonatal asphyxia, perinatal death, and increased susceptibility to various chronic diseases in adulthood. This chapter presents an overview of xenobiotics with fetal developmental toxicity and analyzes their toxic effects and mechanisms at the cellular level, providing a theoretical and experimental basis for exploring the intrauterine origin and causative factors of fetal-originated disease.