http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (HealthDay) -- Maternal glycemic status and adiponectin levels are linked to epigenetic changes in the adiponectin gene (ADIPOQ), according to a study published online March 6 in Diabetes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-maternal-glycemic-status-linked-epigenetic.html Diabetes Fri, 09 Mar 2012 05:20:01 EST news250490738 (Medical Xpress) -- UCLA stem-cell researchers have identified a certain type of cell and a signaling pathway in the placental niche that play a key role in stopping blood stem cells from differentiating into mature blood cells in the placenta. Preventing this premature differentiation is critical to ensuring a proper blood supply for an individual's lifetime. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-scientists-crucial-cell-pathway-placental.html Medical research Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:34:10 EST news249827642 Parents may be misinformed during prenatal scans on whether their twins are identical or non-identical, say UCL researchers in a new commentary piece published today in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-twins-identical.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Wed, 29 Feb 2012 05:03:03 EST news249714176 Heme oxygenase-1 is essential for the growth of blood vessels in the placenta and in establishing blood flow in the umbilical cord. Too little HO-1 can lead to a restriction in the growth of the fetus and even in fetal death and miscarriage. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Medical Gas Research has shown that low dose carbon monoxide therapy is able to restore placental function and prevent fetal death in mice, without any detrimental effects. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-deadly-carbon-monoxide-miscarriage.html Medical research Mon, 20 Feb 2012 04:31:32 EST news248934681 (Medical Xpress) -- Many pregnant women who suffer from asthma are putting their unborn child's health at risk by failing to use the right medication, according to a University of Adelaide researcher. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-pregnant-asthmatic-women-health.html Health Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:00:03 EST news248690269 In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting, in Dallas, Texas, researchers will report that early transplantation of human placenta-derived mesenchymal stem cells into the lateral ventricles of neonatal rats with birth-related brain damage is possible, and that the donor cells can survive and migrate in the recipient's brain. The study was designed to have the rat's brain damage mimic brain injury in infants with very low birth weight. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-neurologic-rats-stem-cell-transplant.html Medical research Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:20:01 EST news248073922 The researchers studied the immune response of 107 pregnant women after they were injected with a single dose of non-adjuvant H1N1 vaccine. They concluded that the influenza shot boosted the immune response in pregnant women and at the same time protected neuronatal babies via the antibodies that transferred through the placenta. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-h1n1-flu-vaccine-pregnant-women.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:30:07 EST news242476177 (AP) -- Federal regulators are ordering several companies to stop selling an unproven weight loss remedy that uses protein from the human placenta. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-feds-homeopathic-weight-loss-remedy.html Medications Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:10:29 EST news242399412 Sickle cell anemia causes pain, fatigue and delayed growth, all because of a lack of enough healthy red blood cells. And yet genetic mutations that cause it - recessive genes for the oxygen-carrying hemoglobin protein - have survived natural selection because they also seem to provide a natural defense against malaria. Scientists have long known this, and they have long wondered how it worked. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-sickle-cell-anemia-malaria-defense.html Medical research Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:30:01 EST news241865840 (Medical Xpress) -- Unusual features of the human placenta may be the underlying cause of postpartum hemorrhage, the leading cause of maternal deaths during childbirth, according to evolutionary research at the University of Illinois at Chicago. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-evolution-clues-death-childbirth.html Medical research Wed, 02 Nov 2011 07:09:55 EST news239436575 Researchers at St. Michael's Hospital have identified a potential new cause for unexplained miscarriages in mice. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-unexplained-miscarriages.html Medical research Tue, 01 Nov 2011 11:19:12 EST news239365120 Fetal and neonatal immune thrombocytopenia (FNIT; aka FNAIT) is a condition in which fetuses and newborns have reduced numbers of blood cells known as platelets. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-potential-miscarriage-habitual-abortion.html Medical research Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:15:43 EST news238680933 A battle that brews in the mother's womb between the father's biological goal to produce the biggest, healthiest baby possible vs. the mother's need to live through delivery might help explain preeclampsia, an often deadly disease of pregnancy. The fetus must be big enough to thrive, yet small enough to pass through the birth canal. In a new study, Yale researchers describe the mechanism that keeps these conflicting goals in balance. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-placenta-uterus-preeclampsia.html Medical research Tue, 11 Oct 2011 04:11:50 EST news237525103 Collaborative research between Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the University of Copenhagen, published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, have answered a long standing mystery, why and how malaria parasites go unnoticed by the immune defences of pregnant mothers. Maternal malaria kills 10,000 women and between 10,000 to 200,000 babies every year. Malaria is a preventable and treatable disease and every life lost is needless. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-malaria-parasites-camouflage-immune-defenses.html Medical research Fri, 19 Aug 2011 09:28:39 EST news232964905 Infants born to mothers who received the influenza (flu) vaccine while pregnant are nearly 50 percent less likely to be hospitalized for the flu than infants born to mothers who did not receive the vaccine while pregnant, according to a new collaborative study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and colleagues. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-influenza-vaccination-pregnancy-newborns.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 23 Jun 2011 03:55:40 EST news228020107 Researchers investigating the foetal origins of chronic disease have discovered that combinations of a mother's body size and the shape and size of her baby's placenta can predict heart disease in men in later life. The research is published online today in the European Heart Journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-mother-body-size-placental-heart.html Cardiology Thu, 02 Jun 2011 05:18:09 EST news226210663 Adalimumab (ADA), a drug often prescribed for women with Crohn's disease, actively crosses the placenta during the final trimester of pregnancy and remains in a newborn's bloodstream for at least three months, researchers at the University of California San Francisco have found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-adalimumab-cord-blood-infants-exposed.html Medications Sun, 08 May 2011 06:26:03 EST news224054725 Research at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California's (USC) Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute shows for the first time that the human placenta plays an active role in synthesizing serotonin, paving the way to new treatment strategies that could mitigate health impacts such as cardiovascular disease and mental illness. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-critical-role-placenta-brain.html Medical research Thu, 21 Apr 2011 09:51:11 EST news222598255