Abstract Purpose To examine the association of maternal bone markers [sclerostin, soluble receptor activator nuclear factor-?B ligand (sRANKL), osteocalcin, 25-hydroxyvitamin D3] with fetal intra-abdominal and subcutaneous adipose tissue deposition birthweight during normal pregnancy. Methods One hundred pregnant women (aged 30.4 ± 5.6 years, mean SD) prepregnancy body mass index = 24.1 4.6 kg/...

Maternal stress and anxiety during pregnancy are related to negative developmental outcomes for offspring, both physiological and psychological, from the fetal period through early adolescence. This robust relationship is likely to be partly explained by alterations in fetal neurodevelopmental programming, calling for further examination of neurophysiologically-based cognitive markers that may ...

OBJECTIVE To examine whether in pregnancies with fetal trisomy 21 the level of maternal serum free beta-human chorionic gonadotropin (beta-hCG) and pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A) at 11 + 0 to 13 + 6 weeks' gestation is independent of the presence or absence of tricuspid regurgitation and to estimate the performance of a screening test that combines tricuspid regurgitation with f...

Chronic low levels of inflammation have links to obesity, diabetes and insulin resistance. We sought to assess the relationship between cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) and insulin resistance in a healthy, euglycemic population. This is a prospective study of 574 non-diabetic mother and infant pairs. Maternal body mass index (BMI), TNF-α, glucose and insulin were measured in early pregnan...

Gestational diabetes and obesity are the common metabolic abnormalities occurring during pregnancy. Decreased maternal pregravid insulin sensitivity (insulin resistance) coupled with an inadequate insulin response are the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the development of gestational diabetes. Insulin-regulated carbohydrate, lipid and protein metabolism are all affected to a variable d...

Maternal seafood intake is of great health interest since it constitutes an important source of n-3 fatty acids, but provides also an important pathway for fetal exposure to Hg. The objective of the present study was to determine associations between Hg contamination and both maternal seafood consumption and fetal growth in French pregnant women. Pregnant women included in the 'EDEN mother-chil...

The bilateral trafficking of nucleated cells between the fetus and the mother was studied using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based systems sensitive enough to detect 1 target cell in 100,000 background cells. Sixty-six mother-baby pairs were recruited; maternal and cord blood samples were collected at delivery for DNA extraction. Cell trafficking was studied in informative cases using PCR-ge...