Metabolomics in normal and pathologic pregnancies

Metabolomics is an emerging science, with promising applications in the medical field. The metabolomic is based on the identification of a high number of metabolites present in a biological fluid, not guided by a priori hypotheses. This approach allows to characterize the metabolic profile of a given condition and to identify which metabolites or metabolite patterns can be useful in the discrimination between different study groups. It is a holistic technique, which tends to consider a series of complex factors, combining them into a whole that belongs to the cell and finally to the individual. Metabolomics studies have allowed us to identify and quantify thousands of low weight molecules simultaneously, giving us a picture of the global metabolic state, both at tissue and cellular level of the organism in its entirety, this allows us to correlate genetic with phenotype dynamics. Catabolites, analyzed by metabolomics, can be considered as a language, an exchange of signals between genetic architecture and the environment. In this chapter we analyze the most current advances that metabolomics has allowed to reveal in the pathophysiology, diagnosis and therapy of premature birth, gestational diabetes, metabolic syndrome, fetal growth restriction and preeclampsia.