Fetal adaptation to stress

Amiel‐Tison, Claudine; Cabrol, D.; Denver, Robert J.; Jarreau, Pierre Henri; Papiernik, E; Piazza, Pier-Vincenzo

doi:10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2004.03.002

Cited by 66 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…At 14 as well as at 18 weeks, movement duration was longer and deceleration time was more prolonged for movements towards the eye compared to movements towards the mouth. Consistently with available evidence on acceleration of physical and neurological maturity in multiple pregnancies [30], this precocious differentiation of movement patterns might be regarded as an expression of early motor development. Interestingly, the kinematic profile of movements directed towards the co-twin displayed an even higher degree of accuracy: movement duration was longer and the percentage of time spent decelerating was greater for movements directed towards the co-twin than for self-directed movements aimed at the eye or the mouth.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Wired to Be Social: The Ontogeny of Human Interaction

et al. 2010

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BackgroundNewborns come into the world wired to socially interact. Is a propensity to socially oriented action already present before birth? Twin pregnancies provide a unique opportunity to investigate the social pre-wiring hypothesis. Although various types of inter-twins contact have been demonstrated starting from the 11th week of gestation, no study has so far investigated the critical question whether intra-pair contact is the result of motor planning rather then the accidental outcome of spatial proximity.Methodology/Principal FindingsKinematic profiles of movements in five pairs of twin foetuses were studied by using four-dimensional ultrasonography during two separate recording sessions carried out at the 14th and 18th week of gestation. We demonstrate that by the 14th week of gestation twin foetuses do not only display movements directed towards the uterine wall and self-directed movements, but also movements specifically aimed at the co-twin, the proportion of which increases between the 14th and 18th gestational week. Kinematic analysis revealed that movement duration was longer and deceleration time was prolonged for other-directed movements compared to movements directed towards the uterine wall. Similar kinematic profiles were observed for movements directed towards the co-twin and self-directed movements aimed at the eye-region, i.e. the most delicate region of the body.Conclusions/SignificanceWe conclude that performance of movements towards the co-twin is not accidental: already starting from the 14th week of gestation twin foetuses execute movements specifically aimed at the co-twin.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Wired to Be Social: The Ontogeny of Human Interaction

et al. 2010

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“…More recently, bile acids were thought to cause oxidative damage by stimulating the generation of free oxygen radicals in mitochondria [49–51]. As one of the most actively metabolic organs during pregnancy and the major organ to produce stress response, the fetal adrenal gland might be sensitive to the damaging effects of bile acids.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Acceleration of maturation might occur in the brain and the lungs, as an adaptation to fetal stress [49]. These adaptive changes could represent a life-saving answer to moderate stress, with resultant earlier birth of a more mature newborn, and increased survival, if the unfavorable fetal environment was moderate [34].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impaired fetal adrenal function in intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy

et al. 2011

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SummaryBackgroundIntrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is a pregnancy-associated liver disease of unknown etiology. The aim of this study was to investigate the change in maternal and fetal adrenal function in clinical and experimental ICP.Material/MethodsThe maternal and fetal serum levels of cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) were determined in 14 women with ICP and in pregnant rats with estrogen-induced intrahepatic cholestasis.ResultsIn women with ICP, the fetal serum cortisol and DHEAS levels were significantly higher than those in women with normal pregnancy, after correcting the impact of gestational age at delivery. The relationship between fetal cortisol and maternal cholic acid levels was bidirectional; the fetal cortisol tended to increase in mild ICP, while it decreased in severe ICP. In pregnant rats with estrogen-induced cholestasis, the fetal cortisol level was significantly lower in the group with oxytocin injection, compared with the group without oxytocin injection (191.92±18.86 vs. 272.71±31.83 ng/ml, P<0.05). In contrast, the fetal cortisol concentration was increased after oxytocin injection in normal control rats.ConclusionsThe data indicate that fetal stress-responsive system is stimulated in mild ICP, but it is suppressed in severe ICP, which might contribute to the occurrence of unpredictable sudden fetal death. Further studies are warranted to explore the role of impaired fetal adrenal function in the pathogenesis of ICP and the clinical implications.

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“…Functionally, glucocorticoids produced in the adrenal cortex drain through the adrenomedullary arcades, stimulating Catechol- O -methyl transferase synthesis (Parvez and Parvez 1973), the rate-limiting step in adrenaline synthesis, on the one hand, and stimulating the number of βARs, which enhances adrenaline action on the lung under stress conditions, on the other. This close physiologic functional integration of the adrenocorticomedullary and pulmonary systems during the birth process may have generated the selection for hormonal acceleration of the lung's development (Ballard and Ballard 1996), providing phenotypic variability in the rates of pulmonary development that enhanced survival under such conditions as famine (O’Regan et al 2001), infection (Rehan et al 2007) and physiologic stress (Amiel-Tison et al 2004). The causal nature of this evolved mechanism is further supported by the antagonistic effect of adrenocortical androgens on this process (Torday 1990), indicating co-evolution of both agonistic, and antagonistic effects of the endocrine system on the lung that have generated a spectrum of phenotypes, or a reaction norm, that optimizes both physiological and structural adaptation.…”

Section: Ontogeny Of the Beta-adrenergic Receptor And The Evolution Omentioning

confidence: 99%

Cell-cell signaling drives the evolution of complex traits: introduction--lung evo-devo

Torday

Rehan

2009

Integrative and Comparative Biology

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Physiology integrates biology with the environment through cell–cell interactions at multiple levels. The evolution of the respiratory system has been “deconvoluted” (Torday and Rehan in Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 31:8–12, 2004) through Gene Regulatory Networks (GRNs) applied to cell–cell communication for all aspects of lung biology development, homeostasis, regeneration, and aging. Using this approach, we have predicted the phenotypic consequences of failed signaling for lung development, homeostasis, and regeneration based on evolutionary principles. This cell–cell communication model predicts other aspects of vertebrate physiology as adaptational responses. For example, the oxygen-induced differentiation of alveolar myocytes into alveolar adipocytes was critical for the evolution of the lung in land dwelling animals adapting to fluctuating Phanarezoic oxygen levels over the past 500 million years. Adipocytes prevent lung injury due to oxygen radicals and facilitate the rise of endothermy. In addition, they produce the class I cytokine leptin, which augments pulmonary surfactant activity and alveolar surface area, increasing selection pressure for both respiratory oxygenation and metabolic demand initially constrained by high-systemic vascular pressure, but subsequently compensated by the evolution of the adrenomedullary beta-adrenergic receptor mechanism. Conserted positive selection for the lung and adrenals created further selection pressure for the heart, which becomes progressively more complex phylogenetically in tandem with the lung. Developmentally, increasing heart complexity and size impinges precociously on the gut mesoderm to induce the liver. That evolutionary-developmental interaction is significant because the liver provides regulated sources of glucose and glycogen to the evolving physiologic system, which is necessary for the evolution of the neocortex. Evolution of neocortical control furthers integration of physiologic systems. Such an evolutionary vertical integration of cell-to-tissue-to-organ-to-physiology of intrinsic cell–cell signaling and extrinsic factors is the reverse of the “top-down” conventional way in which physiologic systems are usually regarded. This novel mechanistic approach, incorporating a “middle-out” cell–cell signaling component, will lead to a readily available algorithm for integrating genes and phenotypes. This symposium surveyed the phylogenetic origins of such vertically integrated mechanisms for the evolution of cell–cell communication as the basis for complex physiologic traits, from sponges to man.

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Fetal adaptation to stress

Cited by 66 publications

References 44 publications

Wired to Be Social: The Ontogeny of Human Interaction

Wired to Be Social: The Ontogeny of Human Interaction

Impaired fetal adrenal function in intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy

Cell-cell signaling drives the evolution of complex traits: introduction--lung evo-devo

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