Search results for "Pregnancy."
showing 10 items of 1965 documents
DNA methylation links prenatal smoking exposure to later life health outcomes in offspring
2019
Background Maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with adverse offspring health outcomes across their life course. We hypothesize that DNA methylation is a potential mediator of this relationship. Methods We examined the association of prenatal maternal smoking with offspring blood DNA methylation in 2821 individuals (age 16 to 48 years) from five prospective birth cohort studies and perform Mendelian randomization and mediation analyses to assess whether methylation markers have causal effects on disease outcomes in the offspring. Results We identify 69 differentially methylated CpGs in 36 genomic regions (P value < 1 × 10−7) associated with exposure to maternal smoking in adolesc…
Fat-soluble nutrients and Omega-3 fatty acids as modifiable factors influencing preterm birth risk
2019
Preterm birth is a leading cause of child morbidity and mortality, so strategies to reduce early birth must remain a priority. One key approach to enhancing birth outcomes is improving maternal dietary intake. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to discuss mechanisms on perinatal status of fat-soluble nutrients (carotenoids, retinol, tocopherols) and omega-3 fatty acids and how they impact risk for preterm birth. Literature review demonstrates that maternal dietary intake and biological (blood and placental tissue) levels of fat-soluble nutrients during pregnancy may provide antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory health benefits. Omega-3 fatty acids also promote increas…
Prognostic use of soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 and placental growth factor in patients with coronary artery disease.
2015
Background: Intention of the study is to assess the cardiovascular mortality of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) with the biomarkers of angiogenesis PlGF and its endogenous inhibitor sFlt-1. Methods: The cohort included n = 1848 patients with CAD and 282 subjects without CAD. In 85 patients cardiovascular mortality, as combination of fatal myocardial infarction or any cardiac death, during a median follow-up duration of 3.9 years was reported. Results: In Kaplan–Meier curve analysis PlGF in rising thirds was not predictive regarding outcome (p = 0.54), the same was shown for sFlt-1 (p = 0.44). Cox regression for the fully adjusted model provided a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.8 (p = 0…
Role of Stro1+/CD44+ stem cells in myometrial physiology and uterine remodeling during pregnancy†
2016
Regulation of myometrial functions during pregnancy has been considered the result of the integration of endocrine and mechanical signals. Nevertheless, uterine regeneration is poorly understood, and the cellular source within the gravid uterus is largely unexplored.In this study, we isolated and quantified the myometrial stem cells (MSC) population from pregnant female Eker rat uteri, by using Stro1/CD44 surface markers. We demonstrated that prior parity significantly increased the percentage of Stro1+/CD44+ MSC because of injured tissue response. Interestingly, we established that Stro1+/CD44+ MSC respond efficiently to physiological cues when they were treated in vitro under different do…
Evidence that the endometrial microbiota has an effect on implantation success or failure
2016
Background Bacterial cells in the human body account for 1–3% of total body weight and are at least equal in number to human cells. Recent research has focused on understanding how the different bacterial communities in the body (eg, gut, respiratory, skin, and vaginal microbiomes) predispose to health and disease. The microbiota of the reproductive tract has been inferred from the vaginal bacterial communities, and the uterus has been classically considered a sterile cavity. However, while the vaginal microbiota has been investigated in depth, there is a paucity of consistent data regarding the existence of an endometrial microbiota and its possible impact in reproductive function. Objecti…
Embryo morphokinetics analysis and reproductive outcomes with assisted oocyte activation by a calcium ionophore after prior fertilization failure. A …
2020
Abstract Background Fertilization failure or low fertilization rate after ICSI is around 1–3% in IVF treatments. Several strategies have been studied in order to bypass the lack of activation. The aim of this study is to evaluate embryo morphokinetics and reproductive outcomes after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) with assisted oocyte activation (AOA) using a calcium ionophore (CaI) in patients with previous fertilization failure or low fertilization rate (under 30%) and severe male factor. Methods Multicentric retrospective cohort study including 70 patients with fertilization failure or low fertilization rate and severe male factor (sperm concentration under 1 million/mL) who unde…
Introduction
2019
Timely and appropriate medical care can significantly influence the health of a newborn. When considering how to best deliver such care, we must first note that each human represents the result of a balance between nature (genetics) and nurture (environment). Importantly, while most of our care is centered on in utero development, the preconception period is also a time at which genetic and environmental factors can interact to exert effects that ultimately influence the health of the future offspring. In this issue's Views and Reviews, we provide data to suggest that modern preconceptional care should become a key component of reproductive medicine, not only to improve implantation and pre…
Elastin-derived peptide VGVAPG affects the proliferation of mouse cortical astrocytes with the involvement of aryl hydrocarbon receptor (Ahr), peroxi…
2019
Abstract During aging and ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, elastin molecules are degraded and elastin-derived peptides are released into the brain microenvironment. Val-Gly-Val-Ala-Pro-Gly (VGVAPG) is a repeating hexapeptide in the elastin molecule. It is well documented that the peptide sequence binds with high affinity to elastin-binding protein (EBP) located on the cell surface, thereby transducing a molecular signal into the cell. The aim of our study was to investigate whether EBP, aryl hydrocarbon receptor (Ahr), and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (Pparγ) are involved in VGVAPG-stimulated proliferation. Primary astrocytes were maintained in DMEM/F12 medium without ph…
A Tuft Cell-Like Signature Is Highly Prevalent in Thymic Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Delineates New Molecular Subsets Among the Major Lung Cancer His…
2020
Abstract Introduction In-depth genomic characterization of thymic epithelial tumors (TETs), comprising thymomas and thymic carcinomas (TCs), failed to identify targetable mutations and suggested unique biology of TETs, including KIT expression in most TCs. Recently, tuft cell–like medullary thymic epithelial cells were identified in the murine thymus, and our reanalysis of the published gene expression data revealed that these cells express KIT. In addition, recently, a minor subset of SCLCs with tuft cell–like features was described. Methods We interrogated mRNA expression data from our tumor cohorts (N = 60) and publicly available, independent data sets from TETs and NSCLC (N = 1199) for …
Influenza vaccine effectiveness among high-risk groups: a systematic literature review and metaanalysis of case-control and cohort studies
2017
Vaccination represents the most effective intervention to prevent infection, hospitalization and mortality due to influenza. This meta-analysis quantifies data reporting influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) on influenza visits and hospitalizations of case-control and cohort studies among high-risk groups. A systematic literature review including original articles published between 2007 and 2016, using a protocol registered on Prospero with No. 42017054854, and a meta-analysis were conducted. For three high-risk groups (subjects with underlying health conditions, pregnant women and health care workers) only a qualitative evaluation was carried out. The VE quantitative analysis demonstrated a…