prenatal

Poor prenatal nutrition permanently damages function of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas

...n studies of mice, the researchers found that poor prenatal nutrition impairs the pancreas's ability to later ...ood. "Many people believe we don't have much of a prenatal nourishment problem in the United States," she added. "But poor nutrition of a developing baby can o...

Rats infected as newborns grew up vulnerable to memory problems during an immune challenge

Underscoring the value of good prenatal care, new research suggests that early infection m...atric and neurodegenerative diseases. For example, prenatal viral infection has been implicated in schizophrenia, autism and cerebral palsy; bacterial infection...

PET/MRI scans may help unravel mechanisms of prenatal drug damage

... way to assess the potentially damaging effects of prenatal drug exposure--a technique that could also be used to monitor a fetus's response to therapeutic drugs--using sophisticated, noninvasive medical imaging tools. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, whose finding...

One hit of crystal meth causes birth defects

A single prenatal dose of methamphetamine ?commonly known as speed ?may be enough to cause long-term neurodevelopmental problems in babies, say University of Toronto researchers. In research published in the August issue of Free Radical Biology and Medicine, U of T p...

OHSU research shows vitamin C counteracts some negative impacts of smoking on unborn babies

...id not receive either nicotine or vitamin C during prenatal development were studied as a control group. "We found that animals exposed to nicotine prior to birth had reduced air flow in the lungs compared to animals that were given nicotine and vitamin C. In fact, the nicotine plus vitamin C group had lung ...

Prenatal exposure to famine increases risk of schizophrenia

...gues conducted a study to test the hypothesis that prenatal exposure to famine would increase the rate of schi... 1961. "Our study strongly supports the view that prenatal exposure to famine increases the risk of schizophrenia in later life. Using a much larger sample siz...

Prenatal exposure to marine toxin causes lasting damage

...w behavioral effects of the toxin in animals after prenatal exposure to domoic acid levels below those generally deemed safe for adults, said Edward Levin, Ph.D. Those effects -- including an increased susceptibility to disruptions of memory -- persisted into adulthood, he said. The findings in rats, theref...

Cells from amniotic fluid used to tissue-engineer a new trachea

..., the procedure known as amniocentesis. And when a prenatal ultrasound exam reveals fetal malformations, amnio...to conduct a clinical trial in human babies with a prenatal ultrasound diagnosis of CDH; the amniotic fluid would be collected several months before birth and a...

MIT researcher presents new view of how the cortex forms

...f copying genetic material. In the brain's early prenatal development, transcription factors control the birth and growth of new neurons, neurons' movement and connectivity within the brain, and which ones live and which are killed off. Later, at a critical point in development, activity in the form of out...

Hyena mothers give their cubs a helpful dose of hormones

...lity to influence her offspring's behavior through prenatal hormone transfer. Previously, this phenomenon had only been documented in birds. Michigan State University's Kay Holekamp, together with her colleagues, spent almost 10 years sampling androgen levels from free-ranging hyenas in Kenya. Androgens are ...

Born with a love of speech

... benefit of experience, or does it come from their prenatal experience in the womb? I think we've shown that t...for speech that we observe might be independent of prenatal experience. It's something that's more built-in." As excited as she is about the results, Dr. Voulo...

Nicotine exposure during development leads to hearing problems

... to that sound. If that receptor is damaged due to prenatal exposure to nicotine, acetylcholine cannot bind wi...his establishment of a causal relationship between prenatal nicotine exposure and auditory-cognitive deficits is an important step forward in reinforcing these ...

Newborn screening can cause unnecessary parental stress

...ucating parents about newborn screening during the prenatal period." The study was funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration and the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) division of the Human Genome Project, National Institutes of Health....

Research links 'ecstasy' to survival of key movement-related cells in brain

..., during previous laboratory studies in rats, that prenatal exposure to MDMA increased growth of dopamine cells in the brain. His team then decided to study exposure to MDMA in cultured embryonic cells--where they confirmed that this drug was in fact increasing dopamine cell survival. The findings, Lipton ...

Study uncovers mutation responsible for Noonan Syndrome

...risk for Noonan syndrome, the findings will aid in prenatal diagnosis and genetic counseling for the disorder. "Furthermore," Neel adds, "because the other two genes that cause Noonan syndrome are also mutated in several types of leukemia and solid tumors, our findings may also expand our knowledge of canc...

A potential biological cause for sudden infant death syndrome

...ved begin during early fetal development, and that prenatal insults like maternal smoking and alcohol use may adversely affect development of the brainstem serotonin system during this time. More research is needed to explain what causes the abnormalities and how they can be prevented. The findings also...

Vitamin D deficiency widespread during pregnancy

Even regular use of prenatal multivitamin supplements is not adequate to preven...low, even though more than 90 percent of them used prenatal vitamins during pregnancy," said Lisa Bodnar, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., assistant professor of epidemiolo...

Severe mental retardation gene mutation identified

...hether are not they are carriers, and we can offer prenatal testing to the carriers who want it." In the broader picture, this research is not only benefiting families with X-linked mental retardation, but it is also defining the genes involved in intellectual development. "If you find genes that are ab...

Prenatal cocaine's lasting cellular effects

...havioral and neurological problems associated with prenatal exposure to cocaine. In a recent issue of the Jour...tanwood, Ph.D., and Pat Levitt, Ph.D., report that prenatal cocaine exposure in rabbits causes a long lasting displacement of dopamine receptors in certain brai...

Scientists discover new, readily available source of stem cells

... a procedure that examines cells in this fluid for prenatal diagnosis of certain genetic disorders. Similar stem cells were isolated from "afterbirth," the placenta and other membranes that are expelled after delivery. Atala said a bank with 100,000 specimens theoretically could supply 99 percent of the U...

Newborn brains grow vision and movement regions first

... the gender difference in brain size arises during prenatal brain development. It's present at birth. That gender difference is set in stone very, very early in brain development," Gilmore said. However, the scans revealed that brain asymmetry -- or which side of the brain is larger -- was opposite in newbo...

Pitt study notes decline in male births in the US and Japan

...avis explained that environmental factors, such as prenatal exposure to endocrine- disrupting environmental pollutants may impact the SRY gene ?a gene on the Y chromosome that determines the sex of a fertilized egg. Other environmental factors that also may affect the viability of a male fetus include the par...

Premature births may be linked to seasonal levels of pesticides and nitrates in surface water

... body of evidence suggests that the consequence of prenatal exposure to pesticides and nitrates as well as to other environmental contaminants is detrimental to many outcomes of pregnancy. As a neonatologist, I am seeing a growing number of birth defects, and preterm births, and I think we need to face up to ...

Study shows lizard moms dress their children for success

...Lancaster said. "Females provide an estradiol-rich prenatal environment to their entire clutch, but different progeny respond to it in different ways depending on which genes they inherit for throat color. So a female could make some progeny barred and others from the same clutch striped, depending on what's ...

Prenatal Stress Keeps Infants, Toddlers up at Night, Study Says

...iece in the unfolding mystery of just how much the prenatal environment may shape a childs health and developm...ers who were depressed during pregnancy. These prenatal mood disturbances worked as reliable predictors of childrens sleep problems even when investigators ...