OBJECTIVE Dysregulation of maternal circulating adipokines has been implicated in several "great obstetrical syndromes" including preeclampsia (PE), small-for-gestational age (SGA) neonate and fetal death (FD). It has been suggested that adipokines provide a molecular link between metabolic derangements and inflammatory response in complicated pregnancies. Retinol binding protein 4 (RBP4), a no...

A high protein-low-carbohydrate diet during pregnancy can cause intra-uterine growth restriction. However, its impact during pregnancy on maternal, umbilical and fetal plasma amino acid (AA) profiles is unknown. A maternal high-protein (30 %)-low-carbohydrate (HP-LC) diet was compared with isoenergetic standard (12·1 % crude protein; ST) and low-protein (6·5 %)-high-carbohydrate (LP-HC) diets f...

The invasive procedures amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling are routinely applied in pregnancies at risk for fetal genetic disorders and the results obtained are the gold standard for prenatal diagnosis. These procedures have an approximately 0.5-1% risk for fetal loss and are mainly used in cases at risk for fetal chromosomal abnormalities and single-gene disorders. Identification of c...

background: breast milk is important for the overall well-being of infants. although lactation is relatively robust in the face of poor nutrition, the implication of poor nutrition on non-nutritive factors in breast milk is inconclusive. objective: this study was designed to find associations between nutritional and immune factors in maternal blood and breast milk with the aim to improve the ne...

The current work aimed to study the effect of preeclampsia on maternal serum level of beta subunit of human chorionic gonadotropin and maternal plasma level of adenosine deaminase. Ninety pregnant women with gestational age 24 26 weeks were selected for this study, they were classified into three groups: group 1 consists of 30 women with normal pregnancy, group 2 consists of 30 patients with mi...

Background: Breast milk is important for the overall well-being of infants. Although lactation is relatively robust in the face of poor nutrition, the implication of poor nutrition on non-nutritive factors in breast milk is inconclusive. Objective: This study was designed to find associations between nutritional and immune factors in maternal blood and breast milk with the aim to improve the ne...

Maternal diet and metabolism impact fetal development. Epigenetic reprogramming facilitates fetal adaptation to these in utero cues. To determine if maternal metabolite levels impact infant DNA methylation globally and at growth and development genes, we followed a clinical birth cohort of 40 mother-infant dyads. Targeted metabolomics and quantitative DNA methylation were analyzed in 1st trimes...

BACKGROUND Placental mRNA was detected in maternal whole blood, raising the possibility of using maternal blood for noninvasive prenatal diagnosis. We investigated fetal mRNA detection in maternal whole blood and determined if it offered advantages over maternal plasma analysis. METHODOLOGY The concentrations of placental expressed genes, CSH1, KISS1, PLAC4 and PLAC1 in plasma and whole blood...

BACKGROUND The discovery of cell-free fetal DNA in maternal plasma has opened up new possibilities for noninvasive prenatal diagnosis and monitoring. Among the fetal markers that have been described, methylation markers are sex and polymorphism independent. Methylation-sensitive restriction endonucleases are commonly used to digest hypomethylated DNA molecules, and the hypermethylated molecules...

The integrase inhibitors elvitegravir (EVG) and dolutegravir (DTG) rapidly decrease the plasma HIV-1 viral load, a key factor in the prevention of maternal-to-fetal transmission of HIV-1. No data have been reported on the concentrations of these drugs in cord blood, maternal peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), or placental tissue in pregnant women. We present in vivo pharmacokinetic dat...