Diabetes drug increases the weight of fetus

When pregnant women take the common diabetes medication metformin throughout pregnancy, it can positioned their kids at increased hazard of having weight problems or obese. Many pregnant women are taking metformin to deal with gestational diabetes or polycystic ovary syndrome PCOS. PCOS increases the risk of developing diabetes and other metabolic problems.

When pregnant women with PCOS or gestational diabetes take metformin, it crosses the placenta and passed to the fetus. According to Liv Guro Engen Hanem, M.D., of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, the children of pregnant women who took metformin or placebo during pregnancy are at risk of weight gain.

Researchers invited parents of 292 children who participated in previous randomized scientific trials to be part of the study. In the preceding trials, pregnant women with PCOS were assigned to take either metformin or a placebo during pregnancy, the researchers wound up reviewing frame mass index BMI and other measurements for 161 children born following the advance studies.

At age four, the children whose mothers had been randomized to metformin at some point of being pregnant tended to weigh greater than the children whose mother took the placebo despite the fact that metformin did not appear to have an effect on birth weight, the trend became apparent whilst children reached six months of age. At age four, the children in metformin group had higher BMI scores and were much more likely to satisfy the criteria for weight problems or overweight than children in placebo group.
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Hormone that support early pregnancy

Scientists have discovered a fertility hormone that prepares the womb's lining for pregnancy. The discovery made by testing tissue from women aged in their forties could help scientists develop ways to improve fertility. Each month, as part of the menstrual cycle, hormones send chemical signals to cells in the womb lining to create conditions to support pregnancy.

Fertilised eggs are extremely sensitive to changes in the womb lining, but the exact environment needed for healthy implantation is unknown. The hormone helps prime cells for implantation, a vital stage in early pregnancy when a fertilised egg attaches to the womb lining. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh tested the effects of a hormone known as DHEA on healthy tissue donated by women undergoing unrelated surgery.

 DHEA may boost pregnancy, rates in women trying to conceive naturally or through IVF. They found that treating womb lining cells with DHEA in a dish doubled the level of key proteins associated with healthy implantation in the tissue. DHEA treatment also increased the production of active androgens hormones found in high levels in men.

The study also suggests that levels of DHEA-which are known to decline significantly with age could play a role in infertility in later life. A fertilised egg will implant only if the conditions are just right and DHEA and androgens might improve this environment in cells.
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Links between glands and implanting embryo

Researchers used 3D imaging with molecular testing to uncover new insight into the earliest stages of mammalian pregnancy-offering clues to unsolved questions in pregnancy. They demonstrate in mice that glands in the uterus must link and communicate directly with the embryo so it will implant and begin pregnancy.

Glands nourish the embryos within the crypt by forging a direct connection between the two entities," says the study's senior investigator, Sudhansu K. Dey, PhD, the director of Reproductive Sciences. "The gland secretions produce molecules essential to embryo development. Without Vangl2, the glands do not extend and connect to the embryo, and the embryo does not properly implant."

The Vangl2 gene is critical to glands extending to the embryo, according to the research team, which included co-first authors Jia Yuan, PhD, and Wenbo Deng, PhD, both members of Dey's laboratory.
The researchers are looking for answers to pregnancy problems to help address high rates of preterm birth and infant mortality, which remain persistent health challenges in modern society.

In their study, researchers produced unprecedented visual and molecular detail about the early stages of a normal mouse pregnancy. They then compared normal mouse pregnancy to malformations that occur in the uterus when the gene Vangl2 is deleted from epithelial cells in the lining of uterine cells and glands. Highly conserved and present across species, the Vangl2 gene produces a protein called Van Gogh-Like Protein 2. The protein helps control collective cell movement and spatial arrangement in developing tissues.

In the normal mouse pregnancy, researchers show that glands providing vital molecular support from the mother to developing embryo extend from the uterine lining and connect directly to the embryo. This connection occurs inside implantation chambers in the uterus called crypts. The study reveals that glands remain connected to embryos through pregnancy's early stages. This is to ensure a competent embryo properly implants in crypts-a critical step to beginning a healthy pregnancy.

After disrupting embryo implantation and pregnancy in the mice, the scientists wanted to uncover the molecular mechanism  that makes glands extend to the embryo and promote implantation. They learned that a growth factor protein called HB-EGF (heparin-binding EGF like growth factor) coordinates with Vangl2 to initiate this process.

HB-EGF is normally expressed in the embryo and crypt. To simulate what occurs in pregnancy, the researchers transferred embryo-sized beads soaked with HB-EGF into the mice uteri. Even in the absence of implanting embryos, the HB-EGF-carrying beads displayed implantation-like responses and showed gland-crypt interaction.

HB-EGF is one of the earliest molecular markers for embryo-uterine interaction in implantation. HB-EGF expression induces genetic activity in the crypt epithelium that collaborates with Vangl2 to direct communication between glands and the implanting embryo. Researchers then tested what happened when they administered HB-EGF to mice with deleted Vangl2.

Genetic deletion caused mice uterine glands to form improperly and wither the implantation chamber. Although the glands connected to the blastocyst, it was insufficient to support implantation. But when researchers administered HB-EGF to the mice, it rescued pregnancy by restoring the crypt and molecular links between the uterine glands and embryo.
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Environmental influence can change gene behaviour

In a study of pregnant women, a team of Deakin scientists has shown in humans for the first time that pregnancy can induce long-term epigenetic changes to human body, with major implications for understanding, preventing and treating disease. Deakin University scientists have discovered that pregnancy can cause long-term changes to the way women's genes behave, which could affect the health of mother and children.

The findings of a recent study from Deakin's Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, within the School of Life and Environmental Sciences, showed women experience major molecular changes during pregnancy that could remain with them after their pregnancy has ended. The changes are "epigenetic"-they are not a mutation of the gene's structure, but a change to how genes behave.

Long-term epigenetic changes can lead to increased risks of disease for the next generation. Studies have previously shown the offspring of women with diabetes have an increased risk of developing obesity, glucose intolerance and type 2 diabetes. Epigenetic markers act like a switch that can alter the activity of genes and cells in the body. All individual cells have the same genetic material, but the behaviour of a gene is different in different tissues of the body. That behaviour can be determined by epigenetic factors, independent of the DNA sequences of the genes.

Epigenetics has implications for understanding, preventing and combatting many diseases, from diabetes to cancer, providing understanding of how adverse environmental factors, including lifestyle, can cause disease. Researchers compared groups of never-pregnant women, pregnant women, and women at 20 weeks postpartum, and made comparisons between the same groups of women at pregnancy, at eight to 10 weeks postpartum, and at 20 weeks postpartum. Similar comparisons were carried out among women with type 2 diabetes.

A significant finding was that women with type 2 diabetes had different epigenetic profiles from non-diabetic women, and their profiles underwent different changes during pregnancy. Pregnancy-induced epigenetic changes could lead to complications among these women with diabetes, such as downstream effects that may contribute to insulin resistance, as well as high risk pregnancy outcomes. Maternal malnutrition and other adverse events in pregnancy can cause problems for the next generation due to epigenetics.
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Ibuprofen may harm fertility of female child

Pregnant women who take the pain killer ibuprofen in the first trimester of their pregnancy may be reducing the store of eggs in the ovaries of their daughters. Researchers have found the first evidence in human ovarian tissue that exposure to ibuprofen during the crucial first three months of fetal development results in a loss of the germ cells that go into making the follicles from which female eggs develop. The germ cells either died or failed to grow and multiply at the usual rate.

Female children are born with a finite number of follicles in their ovaries and this defines their future reproductive capacity as adults," explained Dr Séverine Mazaud-Guittot, a researcher at INSERM in Rennes, France, who led the study. "A poorly stocked initial reserve will result in a shortened reproductive life span, early menopause or infertility-events that occur later in life.

The development of the follicles in the fetus has not been completed by the end of the first trimester, so if the ibuprofen treatment is short then the ovarian reserve may recover to some extent. However,  two to seven days of exposure to ibuprofen dramatically reduced the germ cell stockpile in human fetal ovaries during the first trimester of pregnancy and the ovaries did not recover fully from this damage.

This suggests that prolonged exposure to ibuprofen during fetal life may lead to long-term effects on women's fertility and raises concern about ibuprofen consumption by women during the first trimester of pregnancy. Researcher obtained human fetuses between 7-12 weeks of development from legally induced terminations of pregnancy and with the mothers' consent.

Then they cultured the ovarian tissue in the laboratory; part of the tissue from each fetus was exposed to ibuprofen and a second part (the control) was not. Samples from 185 fetuses were analysed. They measured the quantity of ibuprofen in the blood in the umbilical cord in order to analyse how much the fetus would have been exposed to.

They found that ibuprofen crosses the placental barrier. The concentration in the umbilical cords of fetuses from mothers who ingested 800 mg (four pills of 200 mg) two to four hours before surgery is similar to the concentration that can be found in adult's blood for the same treatment. This shows that the fetus is exposed to the same concentration as the mother. In contrast to the fetal tissue that was not exposed to ibuprofen, the tissue that was exposed to concentrations of 10 μM (micromolar) of ibuprofen for a week had approximately half the number of ovarian germ cells 2.

There were fewer cells growing and dividing, more cells dying and a dramatic loss of germ cell numbers, regardless of the gestational age of the fetus. There were significant effects after seven days of exposure to 10 μM of ibuprofen, cell death occurred after two days of treatment. Five days after withdrawing ibuprofen, these harmful effects of ibuprofen were not fully reversed. Ibuprofen use should be restricted to the shortest duration and at the lowest dose necessary to achieve pain or fever relief, especially during pregnancy.
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Mediterranean diet may increase the success rate of IVF

New research has found that women who follow a "Mediterranean" diet in the six months before assisted reproductive treatment have a significantly better chance of becoming pregnant and giving birth to a live baby than women who did not.

Researchers asked women about their diet before in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment and found that those who ate more fresh vegetables, fruit, whole grains, legumes, fish and olive oil, and less red meat, had a 65-68% greater likelihood of achieving a successful pregnancy and birth compared to women with the lowest adherence to the Mediterranean-style diet.

Researchers assessed the diet of different women through a food frequency questionnaire when they enrolled at an Assisted Conception Unity in Athens, Greece, for their first IVF treatment. The questionnaire asked them about how often they ate certain groups of food in the preceding six months; the results gave the women a MedDiet Score, which ranged from 0-55 with higher scores indicating greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet. The women were aged between 22-41 and were non-obese (body mass index of less than 30 kg/m 2 ).

Researchers, led by Associate Professor Nikos Yiannakouris at the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics at Harokopio University of Athens, divided the women into three groups depending on their MedDiet Score: the first group had scores between 18 to 30, the second scored between 31-35 and the third group scored between 36 to 47.

They found that compared to the 86 women in the highest scoring group, the 79 women in the lowest scoring group had significantly lower rates of pregnancies (29% versus 50%) and live births (26.6% versus 48.8%). When the researchers looked at women younger than 35 years old, they found that every five-point improvement in the MedDiet Score was linked with an approximately 2.7 times higher likelihood of achieving a successful pregnancy and live birth.

Overall, 229 women (93.9%) had at least one embryo transferred to their wombs; 138 (56%) had a successful implantation; 104 (42.6%) achieved a clinical pregnancy (one that can be confirmed by ultrasound); and 99 (40.5%) gave birth to a live baby. Women attempting fertility should be encouraged to eat a healthy diet, such as the Mediterranean diet, because greater adherence to this healthy dietary pattern may increase the chances of successful pregnancy and delivering healthy baby.

Adherence to the Mediterranean diet may also help improve semen quality. Taken together, these findings highlight the importance of dietary influences and diet quality on fertility, and support a favourable role for the Mediterranean diet on assisted reproduction performance. The researchers did not find any association between diet and the chances of successful pregnancies and live births among women aged 35 and older. However, they believe this is because hormonal changes, fewer available eggs and other changes that women experience as they get older could mask the influences of environmental factors such as diet.
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Changes in mother's bacteria causes premature birth

A study of hundreds of women, carried out at Imperial College London, found that subtle changes to the bacteria present in the vagina were strongly associated with the mother's waters breaking early and preterm birth-the baby being born before 37 weeks. According to the researchers, the findings show that a shift away from the usual healthy balance of vaginal bacteria was associated with waters breaking early, and could have an impact on the health of mother and baby, including increasing the risk of sepsis for newborns.

During pregnancy babies are protected inside the amniotic sac, with the surrounding membrane rupturing as part of the normal birthing process when the mother's 'waters break' as a precursor to labour. However, when this occurs before 37 weeks, termed premature rupture of membrane (PPROM), the baby is likely to be born prematurely. After the membranes rupture, the baby remains without the protective membrane and is at increased risk of infection - as the vaginal bacteria spread upwards to the placenta and uterus. In order to reduce this risk, the women whose waters have broken early are given intravenous antibiotics.

Researchers from the Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology (IRDB) at Imperial looked at the impact of premature rupturing of the membrane and antibiotic treatment on the vaginal microbiota, taking swabs from the vaginas of pregnant women at different points during their pregnancy and analysing them to reveal the types of bacteria present, their proportions and any changes.

Samples were collected from a prospective group of 250 pregnant women with and without risk factors for giving birth prematurely - such as having a history of preterm birth or miscarriage - of which 27 did in fact have a premature birth. They also collected samples from a second, smaller group of 87 women who presented to hospital with premature membrane rupture.

Previous research has shown that over the course of pregnancy the bacteria that colonise the vagina become less diverse and are dominated chiefly by Lactobacillus species, the same type of bacteria found elsewhere in the body including the gut and mouth. Analysis of the team's samples revealed that premature membrane rupture was associated with a shift in microbiota, with a drop in Lactobacillus and an increase in other types of bacteria, including potentially harmful bugs such as Staphylococcus and Streptococcus.

The team also analysed samples from the small group of women with premature rupture before and after the preventative antibiotic treatment - oral erythromycin, four times a day for 10 days. Swabs were taken before treatment and then at 48 hours, one week and two weeks. For those women whose microbial makeup was dominated by Lactobacillus before the treatment, the antibiotics resulted in a decline in Lactobacillus and a greater diversity of bugs. However, in those women with reduced Lactobacillus to begin with, the treatment was beneficial in some, reducing the amount of potentially harmful bacteria as well.

The study also revealed associations between specific vaginal bacteria and newborns who developed sepsis following delivery. While the mothers of healthy babies were dominated by Lactobacillus, samples from the mothers of newborns with sepsis revealed a greater diversity of bacteria, including the presence of Streptococcus and E. coli.
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Using marijuana does not reduce chances of getting pregnant

Marijuana use by either men or women does not lower chances of getting pregnant, according to a new study led by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) researchers. Marijuana is one of the most widely used recreational drugs among individuals of reproductive age. Previous studies have examined the effects of marijuana use on reproductive hormones and semen quality, with conflicting results.

In Pregnancy Study Online (PRESTO), a web-based prospective cohort study of North American couples, the researchers surveyed 4,194 women aged 21 to 45 living in the United States or Canada. The study specifically targeted women in stable relationships who were not using contraception or fertility treatment.

 Female participants were given the option to invite their male partners to participate; 1,125 of their male partners enrolled. The researchers found that during the period from 2013 through 2017, approximately 12 percent of female participants and 14 percent of male participants reported marijuana use in the two months before completing the baseline survey.

 After 12 cycles of follow-up, conception probabilities were similar among couples that used marijuana and those that did not. The researchers stressed that questions about the effects of marijuana use remain. Classifying people correctly according to the amount of marijuana used, especially when relying on self-reported data is challenging.
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Breastfeeding reduces the risk of diabetes

Breastfeeding for six months or longer reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes nearly in half for women throughout their childbearing years, according to new Kaiser Permanente research in JAMA Internal Medicine. There is a very strong association between breastfeeding duration and lower risk of developing diabetes.

Women who breastfed for six months or more across all births had a 47 percent reduction in their risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to those who did not breastfeed at all. Women who breastfed for six months or less had a 25 percent reduction in diabetes risk. Researchers analyzed data during the 30 years of follow up from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study.

The new findings add to a growing body of evidence that breastfeeding has protective effects for both mothers and their offspring, including lowering a mother's risk of breast and ovarian cancer. The long-term benefits of breastfeeding on lower diabetes risk were similar for black women and white women, and women with and without gestational diabetes.

Black women were three times as likely as white women to develop diabetes within the 30-year study, which is consistent with higher risk found by others. Black women enrolled in CARDIA were also less likely to breastfeed than white women.

The incidence of diabetes decreased in a graded manner as breastfeeding duration increased, regardless of race, gestational diabetes, lifestyle, body size, and other metabolic risk factors measured before pregnancy. Mothers who breastfeed for months after their delivery, may be reducing their risk of developing type 2 diabetes as they get older.
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Time-lapse images of embryos for IVF

A new IVF method that takes thousands of pictures of embryos to select the best eggs has increased the likelihood of successful IVF by 25 per cent. The developing embryos are photographed while in incubators every 10 to 20 minutes and then sent to a computer to rank the eggs using algorithms.

Research including 24,000 documented treatments led by leading fertility expert Professor Simon Fishel compared IVF babies born with and without the new technique. A new IVF treatment photographs developing embryos in incubators every 10 to 20 minutes and then sent to a computer to rank the eggs using algorithms.

The study found that embryos chosen for use by the time-lapse imaging process were more likely to have a successful birth. The research demonstrates how this new technology will revolutionise the way IVF is carried out. The new IVF treatment that takes time-lapse images of embryos in order to pick the best eggs has increased chances of a successful pregnancy by 25 per cent.

Previous method involved the taking out of embryos from their temperature controlled incubator and takeing a snapshot of it every 24 hours, potentially exposing them to damage. The new IVF treatment that takes time-lapse images of embryos in order to pick the best eggs has increased chances of a successful pregnancy by 25 percent.
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Acetaminophen in pregnancy may cause language delays

According to new study, children whose mothers used acetaminophen-known as Tylenol early in pregnancy may have an increased risk of language delays. Researchers found that when pregnant women used the painkiller during the first trimester, their daughters were more likely to have language delays, such link was not  seen among boys.

A "language delay" meant the child was using fewer than 50 words, according to the report. This medication should probably be used only with caution, and limited to absolute need," said Christina Chambers, a pediatrics professor at the University of California, San Diego. Chambers, who also co-directs the university's Center for Better Beginnings.

Doctors consider its pain and fever reliever of choice during pregnancy. That's because nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs-including aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen haverisks, particularly later in pregnancy, according to the Organization of Teratology Information Specialists. The group tracks research on medication and other exposures during pregnancy.

There is no good alternative to acetaminophen, evidence is growing that there can be risks from taking the drug during pregnancy, especially more than occasionally. One recent study found that when women used acetaminophen for more than a month during pregnancy, their children had a higher risk of being diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ADHD.

It's not clear that the drug causes developmental problems, but researchers have speculated that it might interfere with hormones that are important in fetal brain development. Acetaminophen is hormonally active, any hormonal effects might affect girls and boys differently. The findings are based on Swedish women who enrolled in a long-term health study during their first trimester. Overall, 59 percent said they'd taken acetaminophen since becoming pregnant.

Their children had their language development assessed at 30 months of age. Roughly 4 percent of girls and 13 percent of boys were found to have a delay. Among girls, the study found, the risk of language delay rose in accordance with mothers' prenatal acetaminophen use. If a pregnant woman had taken more than six tablets in the first trimester, her daughter's risk of language delay was about six times higher, versus girls whose mothers did not use the drug.
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Using paracetamol during pregnancy can reduce the fertility of offsprings

Taking paracetamol during pregnancy may impair the future fertility of female offspring, according to a review published in Endocrine Connections. The article reviews three separate rodent studies that all report altered development in the reproductive systems of female offspring from mothers given paracetamol during pregnancy, which may impair their fertility in adulthood. Paracetamol, or acetaminophen, is an over-the-counter treatment for pain relief that is commonly taken by pregnant women worldwide.

 Recent studies have linked paracetamol use during pregnancy with disruptions in the development of the male reproductive system but the effects on female offspring had not yet been investigated. In this article, Dr David Kristensen and colleagues from Copenhagen University Hospital, review the findings from three individual rodent studies that evaluated the effects of paracetamol taken during pregnancy on the development of the reproductive system in female offspring. It is well known that exposure to some chemicals during pregnancy can cause developmental effects that may not manifest until much later in life.

In rodents and humans, females are born with a finite number of eggs for reproduction in the future. In these reviewed studies, rodents given paracetamol during pregnancy, at doses equivalent to those that a pregnant woman may take for pain relief, produced female offspring with fewer eggs. This means that in adulthood, they have fewer eggs available for fertilisation, which may reduce their chances of successful reproduction, particularly as they get older.

This may not be a severe impairment to fertility, it is still of real concern since data from three different labs all independently found that paracetamol may disrupt female reproductive development in this way, which indicates further investigation is needed to establish how this affects human fertility. Although there are parallels between rodent and human reproductive development, these findings have yet to be firmly established in humans.

 However, establishing a link between paracetamol taken by mothers during pregnancy and fertility problems much later in the adult life of the child will be difficult. Combining epidemiological data from human studies with more experimental research on models, such as rodents, it may be possible to firmly establish this link and determine how it happens, so that pregnant women in pain can be successfully treated, without risk to their unborn children.
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Topiramate increases the risk of oral clefts

The anti-epileptic drug topiramate has been increasingly prescribed over the last decade not only to prevent seizures, but also to treat bipolar disorder and migraine headaches. In addition, topiramate is a component of a recently FDA-approved drug for weight loss. Past studies have found that women taking topiramate during early pregnancy to prevent epileptic seizures had greater chance of giving birth to a baby with an oral cleft, but such studies did not focus on women taking the drug at a lower dose for non-seizure related conditions.

 A new study by investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health suggest that using topiramate in early pregnancy, particularly at the high doses used for epilepsy, increases the risk of oral clefts. The new work leverages nationwide Medicaid data on more than 1 million live births from between 2000 and 2010.

The team examined the risk of oral clefts -- including cleft palate or cleft lip -- among three groups: infants born to women who had taken topiramate in their first trimester; infants born to women who had taken the drug lamotrigine (an unrelated drug used to treat bipolar disorder and epilepsy); and infants who had not been exposed to anti-epileptic medications in utero.

They found that the risk of oral clefts was approximately three times higher for the topiramate group than for either the lamotrigine or the unexposed group. Approximately one out of every 1,000 infants are born with an oral cleft, but among infants exposed to low doses of topiramate (median 100-mg daily dose) in the first trimester, that risk was 2.1 out of every 1,000 live births.

Among women taking higher dose topiramate (median 200-mg daily dose), the risk was much higher -- 12.3 for every 1,000 live births. Women with epilepsy on topiramate have the highest relative risk of giving birth to a baby with cleft lip or cleft palate, likely due to the higher doses of topiramate when used for controlling seizures.
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Effects of estrogen treatment in multiple sclerosis

A study by UCLA researchers reveals the cellular basis for how the hormone estrogen protects against damage to the central nervous system in people with multiple sclerosis (MS). The researchers found that estrogen treatment exerts positive effects on two types of cells during disease -immune cells in the brain and also cells called oligodendrocytes. Complementary actions on these two types provide protection from disease.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic autoimmune, neurodegenerative disease marked by visual impairment, weakness and sensory loss, as well as cognitive decline. These symptoms emerge when inflammatory immune cells destroy the myelin sheath that surrounds nerve processes called axons. Loss of that protective insulation disrupts electrical communication between nerve cells. The third trimester of pregnancy has been previously shown to reduce relapse rates by approximately 70 percent as compared to before pregnancy, and other studies have shown benefit over the long term due to multiple pregnancies.

An estrogen unique to pregnancy that is made by the fetus and placenta has been proposed by Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl and colleagues to mediate this pregnancy protection in both the MS mouse model as well as in two successfully completed clinical trials of estriol treatment in MS patients. How that happens has remained a critical question. Voskuhl, who led the latest study, reported mouse studies showing that estrogen protected the brain from damage by activating a protein called estrogen receptor beta (ERb). Her new research identifies which cells within the brain are mediating this protective effect.

The researchers first genetically eliminated ERb in either immune cells of the brain or in oligodendrocytes, the cells that make the myelin sheath, as a way of making cells unresponsive to estrogen during the MS like disease in mice. They then treated mice without or with ERb in these cells to ask if disease protection was lost or not. Loss of protection during treatment meant that the treatment was acting on the cell that had the receptor removed. Results showed that the estrogen-like treatment was acting on both immune cells of the brain as well as on oligodendrocytes, together resulting in repair of myelin and less disability.

Drug developers often optimize therapies by targeting only one single cell type. By contrast, this study confirms that this estrogen-like compound can combat MS via complementary effects on two distinct cell types. Voskuhl and other UCLA researchers are in fact now developing a next-generation estrogen-like compound with robust biochemical effects on oligodendrocytes and immune cells in the brain.
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Diabetes in pregnancy affects fetus heart

Researchers have discovered how high glucose levels-whether caused by diabetes or other factors keep heart cells from maturing normally, this shows the reason why babies born to women with diabetes are more likely to develop congenital heart disease. When developing heart cells are exposed to high levels of glucose, the researchers found, the cells generate more building blocks of DNA than usual, which leads the cells to continue reproducing rather than mature.

High blood sugar levels are not only unhealthy for adults; they're unhealthy for developing fetuses.  the leading non-genetic risk factor for congenital heart disease is a mother having diabetes during pregnancy. Babies born to women with high levels of glucose in their blood during pregnancy are two to five times more likely to develop the disorder than other babies. However, researchers have never been able to define the precise effect of glucose on the developing fetus.

Researchers used human embryonic stem cells to grow heart cardiomyocin and then exposed them to varying levels of glucose. Cells that were exposed to small amounts of glucose matured normally. But cardiomyocytes that had been mixed with high levels of glucose matured late or failed to mature altogether, and instead generated more immature cells. The researchers discovered that, when exposed to extra glucose, the cardiomyocytes over-activated the pentose phosphate pathway -a cellular process that, among other things, generates nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA.

In cells with high glucose levels, the pentose phosphate pathway made more nucleotides than usual. The scientists showed that the excess of building blocks kept the cells from maturing. By depleting glucose at the right point in development, we can limit the proliferation of the cells, which coaxes them to mature and makes the heart muscle stronger, The same thing occurred in pregnant mice with diabetes-the heart cells of fetuses divided quickly but matured slowly.
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Effects of maternal stress on fetus

Maternal stress during the second trimester of pregnancy may influence the nervous system of the developing child, both before and after birth, and may have subtle effects on temperament, resulting in less smiling and engagement, as well as diminished ability to regulate emotions. Researchers looked at the stress levels of many low-to-middle-income women who were between 12 and 24 weeks pregnant. The researchers followed the women throughout pregnancy and after delivery, and conducted a test to compare their reported stress levels during pregnancy with objective levels of stress in their 6-month-old offspring.

In the test, the infants' cardiac function was monitored while the mothers were instructed to look at the infant's face but not interact with or touch them for two minutes following a brief play session. The mothers reported the number of stressful life events they had experienced during pregnancy, which included illness, relationship problems, housing difficulties and legal issues. The babies of mothers with the highest number of these stressful life events who completed the testing were 22 percent more reactive than the infants of mothers reporting the lowest number of stressful life events. They also recovered less quickly from the stressor, demonstrating lower resilience.

High reactivity, which is assessed by measuring the variability in the heart rate in conjunction with breathing, is indicative of a stronger decrease in parasympathetic nervous system activity in response to challenge, The parasympathetic nervous system enables the body to rest and digest food, by slowing the heart rate and increasing intestinal and glandular activity. Being highly reactive places children at risk for a range of psychopathological problems, particularly anxiety and depression, as well as externalizing problems, such as disruptive behavior, especially if they experience adverse family and school environments.

However, in an optimal environment with few adversities, children with higher stress reactivity don't have their stress response triggered too often and may exhibit better-than-average social skills and emotional and behavioral well-being, because greater reactivity can make them more sensitive to the benefits of positive relationships and experiences in their environments. Those who had higher levels of perceived stress in pregnancy and post-delivery, had babies with temperamental surgency levels that were 8 percent lower than those babies of mothers in the lower third, who reported less perceived stress in pregnancy and post-delivery.

Surgency includes traits such as willingness to approach and engage with the outside world, as well as laughter and smiles. These same babies born to the highly-stressed mothers were also found to have eight percent lower levels of self-regulation, the ability to manage emotions – such as soothing themselves in periods of high stress  compared with the babies of mothers with less perceived stress during pregnancy and post-delivery. This combination of lower surgency and lower self-regulation can place individuals at added risk for depression, anxiety and difficulties with their social relationships.
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Breastmilk prevents food allergy

A mother's diet can protect nursing newborns against food allergies. In mice, milk from mothers exposed to egg protein gave protection against egg allergy to the mothers and offspring, but also to fostered newborns whose birth mothers had not received egg. Newborns gained an insignificant degree of protection from mothers who were exposed to egg during pregnancy but did not breastfeed them. The protective effect was strongest when the newborns were born to and nursed by mothers who were exposed to egg before and during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

 Pregnant and breastfeeding mothers were sometimes cautioned against consuming foods that commonly cause allergy, such as milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts, soy, wheat, fish and shellfish. More recently, feeding peanut foods to infants at high risk for peanut allergy was shown to decrease, not increase, the babies' likelihood of developing allergy to peanut. Allergists now recommend that, unless mothers already have diagnosed food allergies, they should not avoid allergenic foods while pregnant and nursing. Mothers are free to eat a healthy and diverse diet throughout pregnancy and while breastfeeding. Eating a range of nutritious foods during pregnancy and breastfeeding will not promote food allergies in developing babies, and may protect them from food allergy.

Maternal and early childhood diets do not cause food allergies in children. Most children do not develop food allergies, regardless of how they are fed., while some children develop allergies even when fed an optimal diet. The food allergy protections described in the study are dependent on specific proteins, some provided by the mother, others by the offspring. By identifying these proteins and proposing a mechanism through which mother and offspring contribute to the development of food tolerance in the newborn mouse, the research opens new opportunities to study how the protections break down in the case of food allergy and how such breakdowns might be prevented.

Preventing food allergy is critical because there are no approved treatments for this serious and potentially life-threatening condition. The mouse study found that when a nursing mother is exposed to a food protein, her milk contains complexes of the food protein combined with her antibodies, which are transferred to the offspring through breastfeeding. Aided by a protein in the offspring's gut lining and some immune cells, the food protein-antibody complexes are taken up and introduced to the offspring's developing immune system, triggering the production of protective cells that suppress allergic reactions to the food. These protective cells persist after antibodies from the mother are gone, promoting long-term tolerance to the food. A similar mechanism may offer protection to human infants.
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IVF increases the risk of premature birth

In vitro fertilization IVF increases the risk of women giving birth prematurely. Ten per cent of women who conceived through fertility treatment gave birth before 37 weeks, which is considered premature. However, those born before 37 weeks are still more likely than full-term babies to suffer from a range of long-term problems, including cerebral palsy, and developmental conditions such as ADHD. IVF may trigger changes in the placenta, which increases the risk of premature birth.

Experts believe that freezing the embryo first and then implanting it later, rather than doing everything in the same menstrual cycle, may offer protection against the risk. Women who had IVF were 63 per cent more likely to give birth before 37 weeks than those who had conceived naturally. Some studies indicate that ‘sub-fertile’ women who have trouble conceiving tend to be biologically predisposed to premature birth because implantation process is compromised slightly by IVF.

The removal of eggs during fertility treatment could damage the womb’s lining. If implantation could be delayed after egg collection – as enabled by freezing embryos, then the womb could be given time to heal, leading to a better chance of pregnancy. The potential benefits of freezing embryos are highly dependent on the skills of different IVF clinic's. If implantation could be delayed by a month or two after egg collection, premature birth could be prevented.
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Anti-malarial drug for Zika virus treatment

Medication used to prevent and treat malaria may also be effective for Zika virus. The drug, called chloroquine, has a long history of safe use during pregnancy. Zika causes mild flu-like symptoms. But in pregnant women, the virus can cause serious birth defects in babies-including microcephaly-a neurological condition in which newborns have unusually small heads and fail to develop properly.

Presently, there is no treatment or way to reverse the condition. The latest research suggests the anti-malaria drug chloroquine may be an effective drug to treat and prevent Zika infections. Reseachers examined the effect of chloroquine in human brain organoids and pregnant mice infected with the virus, and found the drug markedly reduced the amount of Zika virus in maternal blood and neural progenitor cells in the fetal brain.

Pregnant mice received chloroquine through drinking water in dosages equivalent to acceptable levels used in humans. Although chloroquine did not completely clear Zika from infected mice it did reduce the viral load, suggesting it could limit the neurological damage found in newborns infected by the virus.
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Acetaminophen in pregnancy links to ADHD

According to the latest research, children whose mothers used acetaminophen during pregnancy were more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. ADHD.

The link was confined to longer-term use particularly a month or longer during pregnancy, when expectant mothers used the drug for a week or less, their kids showed a slightly decreased risk of ADHD.

Acetaminophen is known by the brand name Tylenol, but it's an active ingredient in many pain relievers.
According to the study researchers, longer-term use was tied to ADHD whether women used it for pain, fevers or infections.

Pregnant women should not be afraid of using acetaminophen for a short period to treat fever because an untreated fever could leads to some birth defects. Acetaminophen may interfere with maternal hormones that are important for fetal brain development. Pregnant women should avoid long-term use of acetaminophen or any pain reliever drug.
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