Background Both young and advanced maternal age is associated with adverse birth and child outcomes. Few studies have examined these associations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and none have studied adult outcomes in the offspring. Methods Pooled data from five birth cohorts (total N=19,403) in Brazil, Guatemala, India, the Philippines and South Africa were used to examine associations of maternal age with offspring birth weight, gestational age, height-for-age and weight-for-height Z-scores in childhood, attained schooling, and adult height, body composition (BMI, waist circumference, fat and lean mass) and cardiometabolic risk factors (blood pressure and fasting plasma glucose concentration), along with binary variables derived from these. Analyses were unadjusted and adjusted for maternal socio-economic status, height and parity, and breastfeeding duration. Findings In unadjusted analyses, younger (≤19 years) and older (≥35 years) maternal age was associated with lower birth weight, gestational age, child nutritional status and schooling. Associations with younger maternal age remained after adjustment; odds ratios (OR) for low birth weight, pre-term birth, 2-year stunting and failure to complete secondary schooling were 1·18 (95% CI: 1·02,1·36), 1·26 (1·03,1·53), 1·46 (1·25,1·70) and 1·38 (1·18,1·62) respectively compared with mothers aged 20-24 years. After adjustment, older maternal age remained associated with increased risk of pre-term birth (OR=1·33 (1·05,1·67)) but children of older mothers had less 2-year stunting (OR=0·64 (0·54,0·77)) and failure to complete secondary schooling (OR=0·59 (0·48,0·71)). Offspring of both younger and older mothers had higher adult fasting glucose concentrations (~0·05 mmol/l). Interpretation Children of young mothers in LMICs are disadvantaged at birth and in childhood nutrition and schooling. Efforts to prevent early childbearing should be strengthened. After adjusting for confounders, children of older mothers have advantages in nutritional status and schooling. Extremes of maternal age may be associated with disturbed offspring glucose metabolism. Funding Wellcome Trust, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Identification of genes for quantitative traits is difficult using any single approach due to complex inheritance of the traits and limited resolving power of the individual techniques. Here a combination of genetic mapping and bulked transcriptome profiling was used to narrow down the number of differentially expressed salt-responsive genes in rice in order to identify functional polymorphism of genes underlying the quantitative trait loci (QTL). A population of recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from cross between salt-tolerant variety CSR 27 and salt-sensitive variety MI 48 was used to map QTL for salt ion concentrations in different tissues and salt stress susceptibility index (SSI) for spikelet fertility, grain weight, and grain yield. Eight significant QTL intervals were mapped on chromosomes 1, 8, and 12 for the salt ion concentrations and a QTL controlling SSI for spikelet fertility was co-located in one of these intervals on chromosome 8. However, there were total 2,681 genes in these QTL intervals, making it difficult to pinpoint the genes responsible for the functional differences for the traits. Similarly, transcriptome profiling of the seedlings of tolerant and sensitive parents grown under control and salt-stress conditions showed 798 and 2,407 differentially expressed gene probes, respectively. By analyzing pools of RNA extracted from ten each of extremely tolerant and extremely sensitive RILs to normalize the background noise, the number of differentially expressed genes under salt stress was drastically reduced to 30 only. Two of these genes, an integral transmembrane protein DUF6 and a cation chloride cotransporter, were not only co-located in the QTL intervals but also showed the expected distortion of allele frequencies in the extreme tolerant and sensitive RILs, and therefore are suitable for future validation studies and development of functional markers for salt tolerance in rice to facilitate marker-assisted breeding.

The combination of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and pregnancy presents unique management questions. Aspects of care that need to be considered include effects of hepatitis B on pregnancy, effects of pregnancy itself on the course of hepatitis B infection, treatment of hepatitis B during pregnancy and prevention of mother-to-infant transmission. Chronic HBV infection is usually mild in pregnant women, but may flare shortly after delivery. Effect of HBV infection on pregnancy outcomes are generally favorable, but may depend on severity of liver disease. Mother-to-infant transmission can be minimized by current immunoprophylaxis strategies, however, high levels of viremia in mothers may be a factor in the small but reproducible failure rate of current immunoprophylaxis strategies. Use of antivirals during pregnancy needs to be individualized. Careful planning and management of pregnancy must be done among patients with chronic HBV infection.

Background: Given the postulated advantages of mother generated index (MGI) in incorporating the patients' viewpoint and in the absence of a validated India specific postpartum quality of life assessment tool we proposed to evaluate the utility of an adapted Mother-Generated-Index in assessing postpartum quality of life (PQOL) in India.

A substantial percentage of the outpatients seen in the clinics of the district hospital in Uttar Pradesh harbor HIV and viral hepatitis infections, which otherwise would remain undiagnosed without serological screening.