Aurora magazine

The stress of the mother influences the child's age. Excess concerns its many pregnant women it affects telomere length of the fetus. Telomeres are DNA sequences that are essential for cell division: the birth shorter telomeres mean premature aging. The discovery of Tabea Send and Stephanie Witt of the Central Institute of Mental Health.

Chromosomal abnormalities in pregnancy are one of the great fears of expectant mothers. Prenatal tests help eliminate some doubts about it. To ensure the integrity of fetal chromosomes, however, also it needs a good dose of motherly peace.

Telomeres are repeated sequences of DNA that protect eukaryotic chromosomes. With each cell division is a little shorter, since they become too short, the cell dies. The length of telomeres is a biological indicator of age of the person and is associated with age-related illnesses.

Previous studies have already shown that ultraviolet radiation and oxidative stress affect telomere length. In addition, people with psychiatric and somatic disorders often have shorter telomeres than average. The disorders include major depression, post-traumatic stress and other disorders of the mind. But there are few studies on the link between telomere length and maternal stress during pregnancy.

The doctors and Tabea Send Stephanie Witt measured the telomeres of 319 infants and 318 mothers. They then interviewed the mothers about their habits and stress tests subjected pregnant. The questionnaires included questions about any psychological disorders and their father.

The data revealed a correlation between psychosocial stress in pregnancy and shorter telomeres in infants. In the case of stress in pregnancy, the mother telomeres were on average and those of shorter babies. In the case of past psychological disorders and outdated, mothers showed shorter telomeres and infants telomeres average. During pregnancy it is recommended that the mother is undergoing prenatal screening tests such as fetal DNA test that reveals the major chromosomal abnormalities.

Source: springer.com

We know that a diet high in sugar and fat during pregnancy is harmful to mother and child. A study conducted by the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has even linked childhood epilepsy. Increasing too much weight in the early stages of pregnancy in fact increase the risk of epilepsy in children.

Little is known about both the causes of both maternal obesity effects on neurological health of the child. According to the Swedish study, the two things were connected in part. Dr. Neda Razaz has therefore conducted a study of more than 1.4 million pregnancies occurred in Sweden between 1997 and 2011. It examined the body mass index (BMI) of the mothers in the first quarter and has crossed the data with the number of epileptic children. This has found a correlation between maternal index very high and likely to develop the disease.

Of 1.4 million children examined, until 2012 7,592 (0.5%) are epileptic results. The incidence of epilepsy among individuals with between 28 days and 16 years is an average of 6.79 per 10,000. Among the children of normal-weight women with a BMI around 25, it is 6.30 per 10,000. Among the children of women with a BMI of 25-30, however, it is 12.4 per 10,000. A large excess weight in the early stages of pregnancy therefore increases the risk of childhood epilepsy about 11%.
More serious is the obesity increases the risk for the baby. For BMI 30-35, the risk is higher than 20%. For BMI 35-40 the risk is higher than 30%. In the case of obesity grade III, and BMI over 40, there is even talk of a 82% higher risk.

According to the researchers, maternal obesity may cause inflammation that would undermine fetal development. This would lead to brain damage that could stimulate the emergence of neurological disorders. In addition, other studies have shown that an excess of fat and sugar in pregnancy causes metabolic disorders is the woman in the child. This could lead to further complications in adult life.

Source: guardian.ng

It arriving in Europe VeriSeq, a noninvasive prenatal screening test next generation. The technology allows you to run in quickly and accurately testing, saving both time and money. At the base is the next-generation sequencing or NGS, integrated with a software analysis and preparation of libraries for in vitro diagnostic devices. The result is an automated solution that allows you to detect fetal chromosomal abnormalities more common in one day.

For VeriSeq solution just a sample of maternal blood from the tenth week of pregnancy. From here the test detects fetal cells and to analyze the DNA. In this way it is possible to detect trisomy 21, trisomy 18 and trisomy 13. These types of anomalies are at the base respectively of Down syndrome, Edwards syndrome and Patau syndrome. The test also can detect some diseases related to sex chromosomes, with a very low rate of false positives and false negatives. Thanks to the procedure, it is thus possible to minimize the use of invasive prenatal testing.

What is so new VeriSeq compared to traditional invasive prenatal screening test does not? Leverage sequencing coupled readings, using the chemical synthesis developed by Illumina. To this it adds important innovations in terms not only of tools and software, but also workflow. The result is greater accessibility to this kind of test, even by smaller laboratories. The greater efficiency of the process also allows to analyze more than 90 samples in one day. In this way, the process is more rapid.

The manufacturer has evaluated the clinical precision of tests on more than 3,100 maternal blood samples. VeriSeq has proved a highly reliable solution, as well as rapid. Parents who rely on partner laboratories Illumina can therefore rest assured that they will have the results of which are in need of a few days, with the security of a reliable answer to their doubts.

Source: ansa.it

Drinking too much is bad in general, more so if you are looking for a child. A Rutgers University study reveals that it is best to avoid too drunk before conception. In fact, increase the risk for the fetus to have high levels of blood sugar and becoming diabetic as an adult.

They are well known negative effects of alcohol during pregnancy, ranging from birth defects to mental deficiency. Instead, they know little about the effects of alcohol on the female body and the possible effects of a future pregnancy. Professor Dipak Sarkar and his team have therefore conducted a study about it, using rats as test subjects. Rats, in fact, process glucose in a manner very similar to humans.

For four weeks, the researchers subjected the female rats a diet with 6.7% alcohol. They have so raised the levels of alcohol in the blood, reproducing the effect of human alcohol excesses. Later, they eliminated all the alcohol from the diet and after 3 weeks have made pregnant.

Once the females have given birth, the researchers compared the children with those never exposed rats to alcohol. The control group included a subgroup of females fed equal calories of the first group, but without alcohol. In this way the team has excluded the effects caused only by the rise in calories and fat.
Once they become adults, the rats born to females exposed to alcohol showed abnormal glucose homeostasis. This phenomenon increases the level of glucose in the blood and reduces the insulin. The rats in this group were therefore more at risk for diabetes, partly because of some inflammation of the pancreas. This means that the exposure to alcohol was found to be detrimental to the fetus even before conception.

Because this research is so important? In the US, 15% of women who drink having 18-44 years has made "binge drinking" last month. The expression indicates the uptake of large quantities of alcohol in a short time to get drunk. For a woman, this is equivalent to 2-4 cocktails in a couple of hours. The study shows that this habit could be harmful not only for the person but also for his future offspring.

During pregnancy it should therefore not take alcohol and practicing a regular exercise program. Doctors also advise pregnant women to undergo periodically to prenatal screening tests such as fetal DNA test.

Source: medicalxpress.com