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Toxicol Lett 2022 May 17. Epub 2022 May 17.

Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China; Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory of Developmentally Originated Disease, Wuhan, China. Electronic address:

Epidemiological research suggests that convulsions may have an intrauterine developmental origin related to the application of dexamethasone, an artificially synthesized glucocorticoid. Here, using a rat animal model of prenatal dexamethasone exposure (PDE) we confirm that PDE can cause susceptibility to convulsions in male offspring and explore the epigenetic programming mechanism underlying this effect related to intrauterine type 2K-Cl cotransporter (KCC2). Wistar rats were injected with dexamethasone (0. Read More

J Dev Orig Health Dis 2022 May 20:1-13. Epub 2022 May 20.

Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Children of women with pre-eclampsia have increased risk of cardiovascular (CV) and metabolic disease in adult life. Furthermore, the risk of pregnancy complications is higher in daughters born to women affected by pre-eclampsia than in daughters born after uncomplicated pregnancies. While aberrant inflammation contributes to the pathophysiology of pregnancy complications, including pre-eclampsia, the contribution of maternal inflammation to subsequent risk of CV and metabolic disease as well as pregnancy complications in the offspring remains unclear. Read More

Contraception 2022 May 16. Epub 2022 May 16.

Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine, St. Louis, MO.

Objective: To evaluate whether a Medicaid reimbursement program for immediate postpartum long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) is associated with an increased rate of LARC uptake.

Study Design: We conducted a retrospective cohort study comparing patients who delivered at a large, urban, tertiary medical center one year before and after Missouri Medicaid coverage changed to reimburse immediate postpartum LARC in October 2016. Patients were identified through the electronic medical record and excluded if they delivered prior to 24 weeks gestation or had a contraindication to immediate postpartum LARC. Read More

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf 2022 May 16;239:113624. Epub 2022 May 16.

Division of Joint Surgery and Sports Medicine, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China; Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory of Developmentally Originated Disease, Wuhan 430071, China. Electronic address:

Our previous study reported that prenatal caffeine exposure (PCE) could induce chondrodysplasia and increase the susceptibility to osteoarthritis in offspring rats. However, the potential mechanisms and initiating factors remain unknown. This study aims to investigate whether 11β-HSD2, a glucocorticoid-metabolizing enzyme, is involved in the susceptibility of osteoarthritis induced by PCE and to further explore its potential mechanisms and initiating factors. Read More

Cell Biosci 2022 May 18;12(1):64. Epub 2022 May 18.

Center for Reproductive Medicine, Ren Ji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200135, People's Republic of China.

Background: The human amnion is an intrauterine tissue which is involved in the initiation of parturition. In-depth understanding of gene expression signatures of individual cell types in the amnion with respect to membrane rupture at parturition may help identify crucial initiators of parturition for the development of specific strategies to prevent preterm birth, a leading cause of perinatal mortality.

Results: Six major cell types were revealed in human amnion including epithelial cells, fibroblasts and immunocytes as well as three other cell types expressing dual cell markers including epithelial/fibroblast, immune/epithelial and immune/fibroblast markers. Read More