Twin‐Twin Transfusion Syndrome Is Associated with Alterations in the Metabolic Profile of Maternal Plasma in Early Gestation: A Pilot Study

AbstractMany women suffer from new or worsening anxiety during pregnancy. In this pilot study, we investigated the effect of timing and severity of prenatal state anxiety symptoms on reduced birth weight. We hypothesized that: (1) Women with state anxiety symptoms during mid-gestation would deliver newborns with lower birth weight in comparison to participants with symptoms in early gestation and (2) compared to women with lower anxiety symptoms (< 50th percentile), women with medium-to-high state anxiety symptoms (> 50th percentile) would have lower birth weight offspring. The sample consisted of the first 30 pregnant women who agreed to participate in this pilot study. We assessed anxiety symptoms, using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory during early and mid-gestation. We obtained birth weight from clinical charts. A hierarchical multiple regression showed that, after controlling for covariates, state anxiety symptoms in mid-gestation were associated with lower infant birth weight [F(9, 7) = 20.30, p<.001]. However, birth weight did not differ as a function of the severity of maternal state anxiety [F(1, 23)=.14, p=.71 and F(1, 24)=1.76, p=.20., respectively]. Clearly, our pilot data need replication. Once statistical significance is established with larger samples, it will be informative to examine the clinical significance of those findings.

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Large-scale transcriptome-wide profiling of microRNAs in human placenta and maternal plasma at early to mid gestation

10.1101/2020.08.19.20177873 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Melanie D. Smith ◽

Katherine Pillman ◽

Tanja Jankovic-Karasoulos ◽

Dale McAninch ◽

Qianhui Wan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gestational Age ◽

Human Placenta ◽

Large Scale ◽

Chorionic Villus ◽

Maternal Blood ◽

Maternal Plasma ◽

Placental Development ◽

Early Gestation ◽

Oxygen Environment ◽

Mirna Clusters

AbstractBackgroundMicroRNAs (miRNAs) are increasingly seen as important regulators of placental development and opportunistic biomarker targets. Given the difficulty in obtaining samples from early gestation and subsequent paucity of the same, investigation of the role of miRNAs in early gestation human placenta has been limited. To address this, we generated miRNA profiles using 96 placentas from presumed normal pregnancies, across early gestation, in combination with matched profiles from maternal plasma. Placenta samples range from 6-23 weeks’ gestation, a time period that includes placenta from the early, relatively low but physiological (6-10 weeks’ gestation) oxygen environment, and later, physiologically normal oxygen environment (11-23 weeks’ gestation).ResultsWe identified 637 miRNAs with expression in 86 samples (after removing poor quality samples), showing a clear gestational age gradient from 6-23 weeks’ gestation. We identified 374 differentially expressed (DE) miRNAs between placentas from 6-10 weeks’ versus 11-23 weeks’ gestation. We see a clear gestational age group bias in miRNA clusters C19MC, C14MC, miR-17∼92 and paralogs, regions that also include many DE miRNAs. Proportional change in expression of placenta-specific miRNA clusters was reflected in maternal plasma.ConclusionThe presumed introduction of oxygenated maternal blood into the placenta (between ∼10-12 weeks’ gestation) changes the miRNA profile of the chorionic villus, particularly in placenta-specific miRNA clusters. Data presented here comprise a clinically important reference set for studying early placenta development and may underpin the generation of minimally invasive methods for monitoring placental health.

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