gestation

Antibiotics have long been of great benefit for people, both in the medical treatment of human disease and in animal food that improves the growth performance and feed utilization during animal production. Antibiotics as in-feed supplements affect all stages of pork production, including the gestation, nursing, growing, and finishing stages, although the effects show stage-dependent differences. However, the use of antibiotics in animal feed has become a worldwide concern. This review describes why sub-therapeutic levels of antibiotic additives in animal feed have become an integral part of animal feeding programs for more than 70 years, particularly in pork production...

One of the treatments to infertility is In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). In the course of IVF, fertilization rate can be improved through stress reduction. Probably one of the causes of low outcome of IVF is changes in uterine glycoconjugates that are first site of contact between blastocyst and uterus, due to stress, e.g., stress of injection. Thus, the study of the injectional stress effects on implantation period is very important to improve the outcome of IVF. Sixteen mature female rats were divided to experimental and control groups...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether the dimensions of the cones removed during large loop excision of the transformation zone have decreased over time. Secondly, whether these changes were associated with a lower risk of obstetrical harms on a subsequent pregnancy. STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective matched cohort study was performed in a tertiary referral unit in Belgium. A total of 97 women were identified from a database of women who underwent excisional treatment for cervical precancer between January 1st, 2004 and December 31st, 2012, and delivered before December 31st, 2014...

Selenium (Se) has been positively associated with neurodevelopment in early life. However, its margin of safety is rather narrow, and few prospective studies have evaluated its potential neurotoxic effects at intermediate levels. We aimed to explore the association between maternal Se concentrations and child neuropsychological development, including the genetic effect modification of the Se metabolizing gene INMT. Study subjects were 650 mother-child pairs from the Spanish Childhood and Environment Project (INMA, 2003-2005)...

Comprehending mechanisms controlling corpus luteum (CL) angiogenesis and apoptosis in pregnant sows is essential to understand the physiological role of these processes in CL function, progesterone production and consequently in conceptus development and prenatal mortality. CL from 54 sows from two genetic groups, a commercial line (COM) and the local Piau breed (LPB), were obtained for gene expression (n = 3 COM; n = 6 LPB), histological and protein analysis (n = 3 COM; n = 3 LPB), divided in six gestational ages (seven, 15, 30, 45, 60 and 90 days)...

With respect to hazard classification for developmental toxicity under the CLP Regulation it is important to consider the possible influence of maternal toxicity. The aim of the present review was to characterize to which extent developmental effects could be caused by non-specific maternal toxicity. Such effects would not be relevant for classification. In prenatal developmental toxicity studies, the administration of high doses is given in the guideline. The associated non-specific systemic toxicity often affects the maternal body weight...

BACKGROUND: Maternal pre-pregnancy obesity, in term-born children, is associated with an increased risk of attention problems, however this relationship has not been explored among children born extremely preterm. AIM: To estimate the risk of attention problems at age 10years in children born very preterm to overweight (i.e., body mass index (BMI) 25-29kg/m(2)) and obese (i.e., BMI≥30kg/m(2)) women relative to the risk among children born to women who were neither overweight nor obese (i...

INTRODUCTION: In recent years, developments in virological tools have led to the easy detection of rhinoviruses and enteroviruses (E/RV). Their detection is very frequent in cases of airway involvement in children and their demonstrated causality. But the morbidity of E/RV in the neonatal period is unknown due to lack of epidemiological data. The objective of this study was to evaluate the incidence and clinical characteristics of these infections in hospitalized neonates. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the virology specimens of all neonates hospitalized at the Caen University Hospital between 2006 and 2011...

BACKGROUND: Pubic symphysis rupture significant enough to cause serious complications or require surgical intervention is exceedingly rare. Here we review the literature and examine the details of a unique presentation. CASE: A 27-year-old woman presented in labour at 34+6 weeks gestation after an uncomplicated monochorionic-diamniotic twin pregnancy. After vaginal delivery, she developed a substantial labial hematoma. Hours later, she became hemodynamically unstable...

OBJECTIVE: A paucity of effective interventions exists for the prevention of preterm birth (PTB). Renewed interest has focused on cervical pessaries, which have the benefits of being inexpensive, nonsurgical, and easily inserted and removed. In this study, we aim to describe our experience with this device in a Canadian tertiary care centre. Primary outcomes were rates of spontaneous or iatrogenic PTB before 37, 34, and 28 weeks gestation in pregnancies complicated by short cervix treated with cervical pessary...

Objective: To assess the impact of antenatal corticosteroids (ACS) therapy on mortality and morbidities in small for gestational age (SGA) preterm infants. Method: A retrospective database analysis was performed. Preterm infants born at 24-34 completed weeks who were diagnosed as SGA in 14 hospitals in China between 2013 and 2014 were evaluated for mortality and major morbidities including respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), necrotising enterocolitis (NEC), retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) and sepsis...

Objective: To investigate the prognostic effect of neonatal morbidities on poor outcomes at 12 months corrected age in very low birth weight (VLBW) premature infants . Method: From November 2013 to October 2014, a multi-center retrospective study was conducted in 8 tertiary Maternal and Children's hospitals in Guangdong, Hunan and Fujian. The premature infants survived to a postmenstrual age (PMA) of 36 weeks with birth weight less than 1 500 g and without congenital diseases were included, and divided into two groups according to poor outcomes...

Uterine receptivity is defined as a state when the uterine milieu is favorable for blastocyst implantation and it can only last for a limited time period. In this study, by utilizing the embryo transfer model, it was observed that a portion of blastocysts could initiate implantation even when transferred beyond the timing of normal uterine receptivity, while their mid-gestational embryo development exhibited severe retardation, suggesting that the uterine status beyond the normal implantation window is unconducive for normal implantation...

OBJECTIVE: A current descriptive assessment of perinatal outcomes in pregnancies complicated by previable preterm premature rupture of membranes (pPPROM) at <24 weeks of gestation, after expectant treatment. STUDY DESIGN: Maternal and short-term neonatal data were collected for patients with pPPROM. RESULTS: Seventy-three patients with 93 fetuses were hospitalized with pPPROM at 15-24 weeks' gestation. Among these patients, 27.4% (n=20) chose pregnancy termination, 27...

The placenta plays a major role in embryo-fetal defects and intrauterine growth retardation after maternal alcohol consumption. Our aims were to determine the oxidative status and cellular and molecular oxidative stress effects on uterine myometrium and trophoblast-decidual tissue following perigestational alcohol intake at early organogenesis. CF-1 female mice were administered with 10% alcohol in drinking water for 17 days prior to and up to day 10 of gestation. Control females received ethanol-free water...

In this study, we assessed some hippocampal signaling cascades and behavioral impairments in 30-day-old rat pups prenatally exposed to methylmercury (MeHg). Pregnant rats were exposed to 1.0 or 2.0 mg/kg MeHg by gavage in alternated days from gestational day 5 until parturition. We found increased anxiety-like and decreased exploration behavior evaluated by open field test and deficit of both short- and long-term memories by novel object recognition task, respectively, in MeHg-treated pups. Downregulated PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway and activated/hypophosphorylated (Ser9) GSK3β in MeHg-treated pups could be upstream of hyperphosphorylated Tau (Ser396) destabilizing microtubules and contributing to neural dysfunction in the hippocampus of these rats...

OBJECTIVES: Pregnant women routinely receive information in support of or opposing infant immunization. We aimed to describe immunization information sources of future mothers' and determine if receiving immunization information is associated with infant immunization timeliness. METHODS: We analyzed data from a child cohort born 2009-2010 in New Zealand. Pregnant women (N = 6822) at a median gestation of 39 weeks described sources of information encouraging or discouraging infant immunization...

The importance of 1,5-anhydroglucitol (1,5-AG) as an intermediate biomarker for diabetic pregnancy is multi-fold: (1) it serves as a reliable indicator of moderate-level glycemic control, especially during early gestation; (2) it has been associated with increased risk of diabetes, independent of HbA1c and fasting glucose; and (3) it is an independent risk factor for the development of eclampsia during pregnancy. However, the clinical use of this biomarker during pregnancy has been underutilized due to physiological changes in glomerular filtration rate, plasma volume, and other hemodynamic parameters which have been hypothesized to bias gestational serum 1,5-AG concentrations...

INTRODUCTION: Studies on outcomes and risk factors for neonatal nephrocalcinosis (NC) and renal calculi (RC) are limited, and often do not include controls for comparison. We conducted a case-control analysis to identify risk factors associated with NC and/or RC in neonates and studied the natural course of these anomalies. STUDY DESIGN: Infants diagnosed with NC/RC on ultrasound within the first year of life and corresponding gestational age- and gender-matched controls were identified from the neonatal intensive care unit database at our institution over a 10-year period...

BACKGROUND: Manipulating maternal nutrition during specific periods of gestation can result in re-programming of fetal and post-natal development. In this experiment we investigated how a feed restriction of 85% compared with 140% of total metabolizable energy requirements, fed to cows during mid-to-late gestation, influences phenotypic development of fetuses and mRNA expression of growth (Insulin-Like Growth Factor family and Insulin Receptor (INSR)), myogenic (Myogenic Differentiation 1 (MYOD1), Myogenin (MYOG), Myocyte Enhancer Factor 2A (MEF2A), Serum Response Factor (SRF)) and adipogenic (Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptor Gamma (PPARG)) genes in fetal longissimus dorsi (LD) and semitendinosus (ST) muscle...