Undernutrition during fetal and postnatal life is still a major problem in many low- and middle-income countries. Even in high-income countries malnutrition may exist in cases of intrauterine growth retardation, as well as in chronic conditions such as anorexia nervosa and inflammatory bowel disease. Children adopted from developing countries are often chronically malnourished. Nutritional reha...

The mechanisms implicated in the fetal alcohol syndrome are described, with discussion on the effects of alcohol, acetaldehyde, and zinc deficiency on the fetal growth and development.

nowadays, new advances in the use of cell free fetal dna (cffdna) in maternal plasma of pregnant women has provided the possibility of applying cffdna in prenatal diagnosis as a non-invasive method. in contrary to the risks of invasive methods that affect both mother and fetus, applying cffdna is proven to be highly effective with lower risk. one of the applications of prenatal diagnosis is fet...

Human fetal brain development is a complex process which is vulnerable to disruption at many stages. Although histogenesis is well-documented, only a few studies have quantified cell numbers across normal human fetal brain growth. Due to the present lack of normative data it is difficult to gauge abnormal development. Furthermore, many studies of brain cell numbers have employed biased counting...

Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) may have permanent stunting effects on muscle growth and development of the progeny. However, underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. Recent studies comparing muscle fiber development and proteomes in IUGR and normal-body-weight (NBW) fetal pigs indicated that muscle fiber diameter were smaller in IUGR fetal pigs than in NBW fetal pigs on all three stag...

Human epidemiological and animal experimental studies suggest that maternal undernutrition during pregnancy may alter cardiovascular development of the offspring. The extent to which these effects involve changes in fetal cardiovascular function and whether they are necessarily linked to reduced fetal growth is unknown. In sheep, we investigated the effect of a 15% reduction in maternal global ...

ABSTRACT In women, high-definition ultrasonography provides high-quality images of normal and diseased tissues throughout pregnancy, however there are no veterinary studies describing the use this technology in pregnant dogs. The objective was to evaluate female dogs daily, using (HD) brachycephalic, documenting daily findings maternal-fetal structures. Twelve healthy brachycephalic females wer...

BACKGROUND The development of the mouse zygote following fertilization in vitro in a KSOM-type medium containing either L-glutamine or glycyl-L-glutamine has been examined, and compared with the development of mouse zygotes produced by natural fertilization. METHODS Mouse IVF, embryo culture and embryo transfer. RESULTS Fertilization rates, development to the blastocyst stage, implantation ...

The influence of maternal hypothyroxinemia on the expression of the glucose transporters, GLUT1 and GLUT3, in rat fetal brain and placenta was investigated. Fetal growth was retarded in hypothyroxinemic pregnancies, but only before the onset of fetal thyroid hormone synthesis. Placental weights were normal, but placental total protein concentration was reduced at 19 days gestation (dg). Immunob...

The field of electrocardiography has been in existence for over a century, yet despite significant advances in adult clinical electrocardiography, signal processing techniques and fast digital processors, the analysis of fetal ECGs is still in its infancy. This is, partly due to a lack of availability of gold standard databases, partly due to the relatively low signal-to-noise ratio of the feta...