281 research outputs found
Variations on fetal heart rate variability.
This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1113/JP27071
Labouring on decelerations: the fetal peripheral chemoreflex wins.
D.G. is Professor of Cardiovascular Physiology & Medicine at the Department of Physiology Development & Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, Professorial Fellow and Director of Studies in Medicine at Gonville & Caius College, a Lister Institute Fellow and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award Holder. He is supported by the British Heart Foundation.This is the author accepted manuscript. It is currently under an indefinite embargo pending publication by Wiley
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Isolating the direct effects of adverse developmental conditions on in vivo cardiovascular function at adulthood: the avian model.
It is now well accepted that exposure to adverse environmental conditions in utero can predispose a fetus to disease later in life. Using an avian model to study the programming of disease has a unique advantage as it allows isolation of the direct effects of adverse conditions on fetal physiology, without any confounding effects via the mother or placenta. However, experiments in avian models are limited by the lack of well-established surgical protocols for the adult bird, which we have established in this study. Surgery was performed on seven young adult Bovan Brown chickens (body weight 1617±214 g, mean±s.d.) in order to instrument them with femoral arterial and venous catheters and a femoral arterial flow probe. Isoflurane and lidocaine were both found to have depressive effects on chicken cardiovascular function. Optimised methods of anaesthesia, intraoperative monitoring, surgical approach, postoperative care, and experimentation are described. Chickens recovered rapidly from surgery without significant blood gas perturbation, and basal in vivo cardiovascular studies were performed following 5 days of recovery. These techniques allow detailed investigation of avian cardiometabolic function, permitting determination of the consequences in later life of direct environmental insults to fetal physiology, isolated from additional effects on maternal physiology and/or placental endocrinology
Hypoxia, fetal and neonatal physiology: 100 years on from Sir Joseph Barcroft.
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1113/JP27200
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AMPK and uterine artery vasodilation
Genes near adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase-α1 (PRKAA1) have been implicated in the greater uterine artery (UtA) blood flow and relative protection from fetal growth restriction seen in altitude-adapted Andean populations. Adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activation vasodilates multiple vessels but whether AMPK is present in UtA or placental tissue and influences UtA vasoreactivity during normal or hypoxic pregnancy remains unknown. We studied isolated UtA and placenta from near-term C57BL/6J mice housed in normoxia (n = 8) or hypoxia (10% oxygen, n = 7-9) from day 14 to day 19, and placentas from non-labouring sea level (n = 3) or 3100 m (n = 3) women. Hypoxia increased AMPK immunostaining in near-term murine UtA and placental tissue. RT-PCR products for AMPK-α1 and -α2 isoforms and liver kinase B1 (LKB1; the upstream kinase activating AMPK) were present in murine and human placenta, and hypoxia increased LKB1 and AMPK-α1 and -α2 expression in the high- compared with low-altitude human placentas. Pharmacological AMPK activation by A769662 caused phenylephrine pre-constricted UtA from normoxic or hypoxic pregnant mice to dilate and this dilatation was partially reversed by the NOS inhibitor l-NAME. Hypoxic pregnancy sufficient to restrict fetal growth markedly augmented the UtA vasodilator effect of AMPK activation in opposition to PE constriction as the result of both NO-dependent and NO-independent mechanisms. We conclude that AMPK is activated during hypoxic pregnancy and that AMPK activation vasodilates the UtA, especially in hypoxic pregnancy. AMPK activation may be playing an adaptive role by limiting cellular energy depletion and helping to maintain utero-placental blood flow in hypoxic pregnancy.Funding for these studies was provided by the Wellcome Trust (084804/2/08/Z) to G.J.B., the British Heart Foundation and the Wellcome Trust to D.A.G., the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) to A.L.F., a UK Wellcome Trust Programme Grant (WT081195MA) to A.M.E. and A.D.M., a BBSRC studentship and in vivo skills award to J.S.H., a National Health Medical Research Council and Centre for Trophoblast Research fellowship to A.N.S.-P., and a NIH RO1 grant (HLBI-079647) to L.G.M. along with sabbatical support from Wake Forest University.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1113/JP27099
Fetal in vivo continuous cardiovascular function during chronic hypoxia.
Although the fetal cardiovascular defence to acute hypoxia and the physiology underlying it have been established for decades, how the fetal cardiovascular system responds to chronic hypoxia has been comparatively understudied. We designed and created isobaric hypoxic chambers able to maintain pregnant sheep for prolonged periods of gestation under controlled significant (10% O2) hypoxia, yielding fetal mean P(aO2) levels (11.5 ± 0.6 mmHg) similar to those measured in human fetuses of hypoxic pregnancy. We also created a wireless data acquisition system able to record fetal blood flow signals in addition to fetal blood pressure and heart rate from free moving ewes as the hypoxic pregnancy is developing. We determined in vivo longitudinal changes in fetal cardiovascular function including parallel measurement of fetal carotid and femoral blood flow and oxygen and glucose delivery during the last third of gestation. The ratio of oxygen (from 2.7 ± 0.2 to 3.8 ± 0.8; P < 0.05) and of glucose (from 2.3 ± 0.1 to 3.3 ± 0.6; P < 0.05) delivery to the fetal carotid, relative to the fetal femoral circulation, increased during and shortly after the period of chronic hypoxia. In contrast, oxygen and glucose delivery remained unchanged from baseline in normoxic fetuses. Fetal plasma urate concentration increased significantly during chronic hypoxia but not during normoxia (Î: 4.8 ± 1.6 vs. 0.5 ± 1.4 ÎŒmol l(-1), P<0.05). The data support the hypotheses tested and show persisting redistribution of substrate delivery away from peripheral and towards essential circulations in the chronically hypoxic fetus, associated with increases in xanthine oxidase-derived reactive oxygen species.This work was supported by the British Heart Foundation.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1113/JP27109
Maternal melatonin: Effective intervention against developmental programming of cardiovascular dysfunction in adult offspring of complicated pregnancy
Funder: British Heart Foundation; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000274Abstract: Adopting an integrative approach, by combining studies of cardiovascular function with those at cellular and molecular levels, this study investigated whether maternal treatment with melatonin protects against programmed cardiovascular dysfunction in the offspring using an established rodent model of hypoxic pregnancy. Wistar rats were divided into normoxic (N) or hypoxic (H, 10% O2) pregnancy ± melatonin (M) treatment (5 ÎŒg·mlâ1.dayâ1) in the maternal drinking water. Hypoxia ± melatonin treatment was from day 15â20 of gestation (term is ca. 22 days). To control for possible effects of maternal hypoxiaâinduced reductions in maternal food intake, additional dams underwent pregnancy under normoxic conditions but were pairâfed (PF) to the daily amount consumed by hypoxic dams from day 15 of gestation. In one cohort of animals from each experimental group (N, NM, H, HM, PF, PFM), measurements were made at the end of gestation. In another, following delivery of the offspring, investigations were made at adulthood. In both fetal and adult offspring, fixed aorta and hearts were studied stereologically and frozen hearts were processed for molecular studies. In adult offspring, mesenteric vessels were isolated and vascular reactivity determined by inâvitro wire myography. Melatonin treatment during normoxic, hypoxic or pairâfed pregnancy elevated circulating plasma melatonin in the pregnant dam and fetus. Relative to normoxic pregnancy, hypoxic pregnancy increased fetal haematocrit, promoted asymmetric fetal growth restriction and resulted in accelerated postnatal catchâup growth. Whilst fetal offspring of hypoxic pregnancy showed aortic wall thickening, adult offspring of hypoxic pregnancy showed dilated cardiomyopathy. Similarly, whilst cardiac protein expression of eNOS was downregulated in the fetal heart, eNOS protein expression was elevated in the heart of adult offspring of hypoxic pregnancy. Adult offspring of hypoxic pregnancy further showed enhanced mesenteric vasoconstrictor reactivity to phenylephrine and the thromboxane mimetic U46619. The effects of hypoxic pregnancy on cardiovascular remodelling and function in the fetal and adult offspring were independent of hypoxiaâinduced reductions in maternal food intake. Conversely, the effects of hypoxic pregnancy on fetal and postanal growth were similar in pairâfed pregnancies. Whilst maternal treatment of normoxic or pairâfed pregnancies with melatonin on the offspring cardiovascular system was unremarkable, treatment of hypoxic pregnancies with melatonin in doses lower than those recommended for overcoming jet lag in humans enhanced fetal cardiac eNOS expression and prevented all alterations in cardiovascular structure and function in fetal and adult offspring. Therefore, the data support that melatonin is a potential therapeutic target for clinical intervention against developmental origins of cardiovascular dysfunction in pregnancy complicated by chronic fetal hypoxia
Genetic and Environmental Contributions to Body Mass Index: Comparative Analysis of Monozygotic Twins, Dizygotic Twins and Same-Age Unrelated Siblings
BackgroundâEarlier studies have established that a substantial percentage of variance in obesity-related phenotypes is explained by genetic components. However, only one study has used both virtual twins (VTs) and biological twins and was able to simultaneously estimate additive genetic, non-additive genetic, shared environmental and unshared environmental components in body mass index (BMI). Our current goal was to re-estimate four components of variance in BMI, applying a more rigorous model to biological and virtual multiples with additional data. Virtual multiples share the same family environment, offering unique opportunities to estimate common environmental influence on phenotypes that cannot be separated from the non-additive genetic component using only biological multiples.
MethodsâData included 929 individuals from 164 monozygotic twin pairs, 156 dizygotic twin pairs, five triplet sets, one quadruplet set, 128 VT pairs, two virtual triplet sets and two virtual quadruplet sets. Virtual multiples consist of one biological child (or twins or triplets) plus one same-aged adoptee who are all raised together since infancy. We estimated the additive genetic, non-additive genetic, shared environmental and unshared random components in BMI using a linear mixed model. The analysis was adjusted for age, age2, age3, height, height2, height3, gender and race.
ResultsâBoth non-additive genetic and common environmental contributions were significant in our model (P-values \u3c 0.0001). No significant additive genetic contribution was found. In all, 63.6% (95% confidence interval (CI) 51.8â75.3%) of the total variance of BMI was explained by a non-additive genetic component, 25.7% (95% CI 13.8â37.5%) by a common environmental component and the remaining 10.7% by an unshared component.
ConclusionâOur results suggest that genetic components play an essential role in BMI and that common environmental factors such as diet or exercise also affect BMI. This conclusion is consistent with our earlier study using a smaller sample and shows the utility of virtual multiples for separating non-additive genetic variance from common environmental variance
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