News

Insulin increases adipose adiponectin in pregnancy by inhibiting ubiquitination and degradation: Impact of obesity

17 September 2021

Irving L M H Aye , Fredrick J Rosario , Anita Kramer , Oddrun Kristiansen , Trond M Michelsen , Theresa L Powell , Thomas Jansson Abstract Context Circulating adiponectin levels are decreased in pregnant women with obesity or gestational diabetes, and this is believed to contribute to the insulin resistance and increased...

Maternal but not fetoplacental health can be improved by metformin in a murine diet-induced model of maternal obesity and glucose intolerance

14 September 2021

Antonia Hufnagel , Denise S. Fernandez-Twinn , Heather L. Blackmore , Thomas J. Ashmore , Robert A. Heaton , Benjamin Jenkins , Albert Koulman , Iain P. Hargreaves , Catherine E. Aiken , Susan E. Ozanne Abstract Maternal obesity is a global problem that increases the risk of short- and long-term adverse outcomes for mother...

External validation of prognostic models to predict stillbirth using the International Prediction of Pregnancy Complications (IPPIC) Network database: an individual participant data meta-analysis

13 September 2021

J. Allotey, R. Whittle, K. I. E. Snell, M. Smuk, R. Townsend, P. von Dadelszen, A. E. P. Heazell, L. Magee, G. C. S. Smith, J. Sandall, B. Thilaganathan, J. Zamora, R. D. Riley, A. Khalil, S. Thangaratinam, for the IPPIC Collaborative Network Objective Stillbirth is a potentially preventable complication of pregnancy...

Excessive endoplasmic reticulum stress drives aberrantmouse trophoblast differentiation and placentaldevelopment leading to pregnancy loss

10 September 2021

Nadejda Capatina , Myriam Hemberger , Graham Burton , Erica Watson , and Hong Wa Yung Key points Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress promotes placental dysmorphogenesis and is associated with poor pregnancy outcomes. We show that unfolded protein response signalling pathways located in the ER drive differentiation of mouse...

Roger Short, one of the giants of the field of reproductive biology has sadly passed away

12 August 2021

roger_short_2.jpg Image credit: The History of Modern Biomedicine It is with great sadness that we hear of the passing of Roger Short, one of the giants of the field of reproductive biology. Roger’s research interests were broad, but notably he pioneered assays for measuring sex steroids and elucidated their effects on...

Variably methylated retrotransposons are refractory to a range of environmental perturbations

2 August 2021

Tessa M. Bertozzi, Jessica L. Becker, Georgina E. T. Blake, Amita Bansal, Duy K. Nguyen, Denise S. Fernandez-Twinn, Susan E. Ozanne, Marisa S. Bartolomei, Rebecca A. Simmons, Erica D. Watson and Anne C. Ferguson-Smith The agouti viable yellow (Avy) allele is an insertional mutation in the mouse genome caused by a variably...

Placental mitochondrial function, nutrient transporters, metabolic signalling and steroid metabolism relate to fetal size and sex in mice

26 July 2021

Esteban Salazar-Petres, Daniela Pereira Carvalho, Jorge Lopez-Tello, Amanda Nancy Sferruzzi-Perri Abstract Fetal growth depends on placental function, which requires energy supplied by mitochondria. Here we investigated whether mitochondrial function in the placenta relates to growth of the lightest and heaviest fetuses of...

Maternal microbiota Bifidobacterium promotes placental vascularization, nutrient transport and fetal growth in mice

26 July 2021

Jorge Lopez-Tello, Zoe Schofield, Raymond Kiu, Matthew J. Dalby, Douwe van Sinderen, Gwnaelle Le Gall, Amanda N Sferruzzi-Perri, Lindsay J Hall Abstract The gut microbiota plays a central role in regulating host metabolism. However, while substantial progress has been made in discerning how the microbiota influences host...

BAP1/ASXL complex modulation regulates epithelial-mesenchymal transition during trophoblast differentiation and invasion

28 June 2021

Vicente Perez-Garcia, Georgia Lea, Pablo Lopez-Jimenez, Hanneke Okkenhaug, Graham J Burton, Ashley Moffett, Margherita Y Turco, Myriam Hemberger Abstract Normal function of the placenta depends on the earliest developmental stages when trophoblast cells differentiate and invade into the endometrium to establish the...

Study identifies trigger for ‘head-to-tail’ axis development in human embryo

21 June 2021

Scientists have identified key molecular events in the developing human embryo between days 7 and 14 - one of the most mysterious, yet critical, stages of our development. The second week of gestation represents a critical stage of embryo development, or embryogenesis. Failure of development during this time is one of the...