Preeclampsia and MicroRNAs

Preeclampsia is a critical gestational condition that threatens the life of both mother and child. One of the most serious aspects of preeclampsia hampering both clinical management and scientific understanding is that there are, as yet, no early warning signs or risk markers. The discovery of microRNAs (miRNAs), tiny post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression, offers potentially fertile ground for developing such markers. The current state of knowledge about miRNAs in preeclampsia is presented along with information regarding miRNA detection in peripheral fluids that could lead to minimally invasive risk assessment

Elevated Chemokine C-C motif ligand 2 (CCL2) early in pregnancy is associated with increased risk of preeclampsia in obese parturients

The objective of this study is to measure plasma CCl2 and leptin early in control and obese women and associate pregnancy outcomes with these levels. We hypothesize that early elevations of plasma CCL2 will be predictive of the development of poor pregnancy outcomes

Division of Reproductive Science Research

The Division of Reproductive Science Research at the University of Iowa has a long tradition and was formally organized in 2009. Since then, the division has enjoyed extensive growth and development in many areas of reproductive research. Sponsored by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health, a Women’s Reproductive Health Research Career Development Center, was established to train future physician-scientists. Further, to enhance our capability to perform translational research, the Women’s Health Tissue Repository was established. This robust bio-repository includes the Maternal Fetal Tissue Bank, the Paternal Contributions to Children’s Health Biobank, the Well Woman Bank, the Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Biobank, and the Gynecologic Malignancies Biobank. Together, these biobanks collect samples from all stages of women’s lives and have deep clinical annotations

Developing a program for residents to support training in research

Physicians are expected to be life-long learners and to assimilate and evaluate new knowledge gained from research. Many residencies also require completion of a scholarly project during their residency. However, the majority of residency training is dedicated to enhancing clinical knowledge base and skills. Because residents are quite busy clinically in residency, the research curriculum is designed to help divide the projects into manageable pieces to be accomplished each year. Research-centered education sessions and frequent feedback about their scholarly project progress help to bolster their research training. Overall, we find that a structured research curriculum results in generally positive perceptions of research and increases the ability of residents to successfully complete projects that are worthy of presentation at conferences as well as of publication

Anti-Müllerian Hormone concentration levels in maternal plasma during the first, second and third trimester of pregnancy

Follicle-Stimulating Hormone (FSH) drops rapidly in pregnancy but Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH) has not been shown to drop until about 12 weeks. Since the follicles that secrete AMH are thought to be FSH independent, AMH levels should slowly decline in the absence of FSH because when the follicles reach FSH dependence, they would die off. A study has presented data that suggests a decline in AMH levels suddenly starts at 12 weeks gestation. The present study agrees with a decline in AMH after the first trimester. There is a sharp decline in AMH at 12-16 weeks gestation indicating that the follicular development is actively suppressed, not passively lost because of a drop in FSH. It appears that pregnancy may be a unique situation in regards to AMH

Global fetal DNA methylation and birth outcomes in obese women

Pregnant women who are obese are more likely to have gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension, pre-eclampsia, macrosomia, operative vaginal delivery, and cesarean delivery. Obesity also has adverse implications for the neonate. Congenital anomalies are more common in children born to obese women. These include neural tube defects, gastroschisis, cardiovascular anomalies, and others. Although the connection between maternal obesity and chronic health conditions has been described, the mechanism by which this occurs is less well understood. Changes to the epigenetic structure of offspring DNA have been proposed as one such mechanism

Evaluation of the VNTR region in the IDO promoter in women with preeclampsia

Indoleamine 2,3 – dioxygenase (IDO) is an enzyme that aids in immunosuppression and tolerance. Previous studies have shown decreased IDO activity in pregnancies affected by preeclampsia, but the mechanism for this altered activity is unknown. Our study was designed to analyze the promoter region of IDO in preeclamptic and control women and identify the frequency of a VNTR genotype that has been shown to be significantly correlated with tryptophan levels in women; a surrogate marker for IDO activity

Anti-Müllerian Hormone concentration levels in maternal plasma during the first, second and third trimester of pregnancy

Follicle-Stimulating Hormone (FSH) drops rapidly in pregnancy but Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH) has not been shown to drop until about 12 weeks. Since the follicles that secrete AMH are thought to be FSH independent, AMH levels should slowly decline in the absence of FSH because when the follicles reach FSH dependence, they would die off. A study has presented data that suggests a decline in AMH levels suddenly starts at 12 weeks gestation. The present study agrees with a decline in AMH after the first trimester. There is a sharp decline in AMH at 12-16 weeks gestation indicating that the follicular development is actively suppressed, not passively lost because of a drop in FSH. It appears that pregnancy may be a unique situation in regards to AMH