Maternal Fetal Osmolar Homeostasis: Fetal Posterior Pituitary Autonomy

The plastic fetal pituitary.

A chronically adverse intrauterine environment can foster a fetal hypercortisolemia that persists after stressful conditions are removed and well after a transient, stress-associated elevation in adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) has passed (1,2). This observation, among others, strongly suggests that chronic intrauterine stress can reprogram the fetal hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis...

Maternal-fetal intervention and fetal care centers.

The past 2 decades have yielded profound advances in the fields of prenatal diagnosis and fetal intervention. Although fetal interventions are driven by a beneficence-based motivation to improve fetal and neonatal outcomes, advancement in fetal therapies raises ethical issues surrounding maternal autonomy and decision-making, concepts of innovation versus research, and organizational aspects wi...

Maternal-Fetal Thyroid Interactions

Tobramycin: maternal-fetal pharmacology.

To investigate the maternal-fetal transfer of tobramycin (TBM) and its distribution in the fetus, a single dose of 2 mg/kg was administered intramuscularly to 35 pregnant patients (13 first trimester, 22 second trimester) 0.5 to 34 h before hysterectomy. TBM concentration was assayed microbiologically in maternal serum, fetal tissues (placenta, brain, lung, liver, and kidney), and fluids (amnio...

Fetal-maternal interface

The existence of allogeneic cells within an individual has been demonstrated in multiple fields such as hematopoietic stem cell or solid organ transplantation, non-depleted blood transfusions and the most common form which is bidirectional maternal-fetal cell trafficking, whereby cells from the fetus pass through the placental barrier. In order to graphically illustrate this early natural pheno...