Objectives: Fetal growth restriction is associated with chronic fetal hypoxia, poor perinatal outcome and increased mortality. There are no reliable methods to detect cell damage in the central nervous system (CNS) these patients. The findings of an acidic calcium-binding protein (S100B) concentration biological fluids infants after brain injury have supported use S100B as a biochemical marker ...

macrophages accumulate in poorly vascularised and hypoxic sites including solid tumours, wounds and sites of infection and inflammation where they can be exposed to low levels of oxygen for long periods. up to date, different studies have shown that a number of transcription factors are activated by hypoxia which in turn activate a broad array of mitogenic, pro-invasive, pro-angiogenic, and pro...

Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is a common pregnancy complication and is a leading cause of fetal morbidity and mortality. Placental hypoxia contributes to adverse fetal consequences, such as IUGR. Exposing pregnant rats to hypoxia can lead to IUGR; however, assessment of maternal vascular function in a rat model of hypoxia, and the mechanisms that may contribute to adverse pregnancy ou...

Fetal growth restriction programs an increased risk of cardiovascular disease in adulthood, but the actual mechanisms of this developmental programming are not fully understood. Previous studies in mammalian models suggest that hearts of growth-restricted fetuses have reduced cardiomyocyte number due to reduced proliferation and premature cardiomyocyte maturation. Chicken embryos incubated unde...

AIMS Hypoxia is a common stress to the foetus and results in increased cardiac vulnerability to adult ischaemic injury. This study tested the hypothesis that foetal hypoxia causes programming of increased AT(2) receptor (AT(2)R) expression in the heart, resulting in the heightened cardiac susceptibility to adult ischaemic injury. METHODS AND RESULTS Time-dated pregnant rats were divided betwe...

Intrauterine stress induces increased risk of adult disease through fetal programming mechanisms. Oxidative stress can be generated by several conditions, such as, prenatal hypoxia, maternal under- and overnutrition, and excessive glucocorticoid exposure. The role of oxidant molecules as signaling factors in fetal programming via epigenetic mechanisms is discussed. By linking oxidative stress w...

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) victims were regarded as normal as a matter of definition (Beckwith 1970) until 1952 when Kinney and colleagues argued for elimination of the clause, "unexpected by history." They argued that "not all SIDS victims were normal," and referred to their hypothesis that SIDS results from brain abnormalities, which they postulated "to originate in utero and lead to...