Article
Biology
Wenjie Li, Cuijuan Niu, Shijun Bian
Summary: Classic population regulation theories focus on immediate factors influencing current populations, while studies on parental environment factors and their effects on offspring populations are scarce. Maternal environments can influence offspring life-history traits across generations, potentially affecting population dynamics and serving as a mechanism for population regulation.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Hui Chen, David Van Reyk, Annabel Oliveira, Yik Lung Chan, Stephanie E. L. Town, Benjamin Rayner, Carol A. Pollock, Sonia Saad, Jacob George, Matthew P. Padula, Brian G. Oliver
Summary: Maternal exposure to low levels of PM2.5 has negative effects on liver health and metabolism in offspring, with more severe impacts on females. Removing PM2.5 during gestation provides limited protection in offspring's metabolism.
Article
Cell Biology
Erika Chavira-Suarez, Luis Antonio Reyes-Castro, Itzel Ivonn Lopez-Tenorio, Lilia Vargas-Hernandez, Guadalupe L. Rodriguez-Gonzalez, Roberto Chavira, Paola Zarate-Segura, Aaron Dominguez-Lopez, Felipe Vadillo-Ortega, Elena Zambrano
Summary: Maternal obesity has negative consequences on offspring development due to changes in steroid hormones and DNA methylation marks. Glucocorticoids play a role in metabolism regulation, and in this study, obese mothers had higher concentrations of progesterone and corticosterone, while lower levels of estradiol. Fetal weight was lower in maternal obesity, and male umbilical cords showed increased methylation of the RXR alpha gene and decreased mRNA and protein expression compared to control.
FRONTIERS IN CELL AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biology
Ivana Schoepf, Sarena Olson, Ignacio T. Moore, Frances Bonier
Summary: Hosts with long coevolutionary history with parasites often assume negligible fitness costs of chronic infection. However, experimental manipulation of infections reveals effects of parasites on hosts during reproduction. In this study, the authors found that reducing haemosporidian infections in red-winged blackbirds resulted in significant benefits to mothers and their offspring.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Sophida Phuthong, Cynthia Guadalupe Reyes-Hernandez, Pilar Rodriguez-Rodriguez, David Ramiro-Cortijo, Marta Gil-Ortega, Raquel Gonzalez-Blazquez, M. Carmen Gonzalez, Angel Luis Lopez de Pablo, Silvia M. Arribas
Summary: Fetal undernutrition has a significant impact on cardiometabolic diseases, with males showing higher susceptibility. The study revealed that male fetuses demonstrate poorer adaptation to undernutrition, associated with oxidative imbalance, reduced vascularization, and glucocorticoid barrier.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Elizabeth A. DeVilbiss, Alexandra C. Purdue-Smithe, Lindsey A. Sjaarda, Brandie D. Taylor, Joshua R. Freeman, Neil J. Perkins, Robert M. Silver, Enrique F. Schisterman, Sunni L. Mumford
Summary: We examined the association between preconception adiposity and offspring sex and sex ratio. Among women attempting pregnancy, higher levels of adiposity were associated with reduced sex ratio, primarily driven by a decrease in male livebirths. Obesity and higher levels of serum leptin and skinfold measurements were significantly associated with lower sex ratios. This study highlights the importance of preconception adiposity in determining offspring sex and sex ratio.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
R. M. Garcia-Garcia, M. Arias-Alvarez, M. Rodriguez, A. Sanchez-Rodriguez, N. Formoso-Rafferty, P. L. Lorenzo, P. G. Rebollar
Summary: This study investigated the effects of restricting food intake in the early stages of pregnancy on reproductive outcomes and offspring viability in primiparous female rabbits. The results showed that food restriction did not have significant effects on conception rate, embryo survival, foetal size, weight, and other variables.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jill M. Goldstein, Justine E. Cohen, Klara Mareckova, Laura Holsen, Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli, Stephen E. Gilman, Stephen L. Buka, Mady Hornig
Summary: The study revealed that maternal exposure to proinflammatory cytokines during pregnancy can impact gender-specific brain development and functional connectivity of offspring, persisting throughout the offspring's lifespan.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Mina Salimi, Farzaneh Eskandari, Fateme Binayi, Afsaneh Eliassi, Hossein Ghanbarian, Mehdi Hedayati, Javad Fahanik-babaei, Mohamad Eftekhary, Rana Keyhanmanesh, Homeira Zardooz
Summary: Exposure to perinatal stress can increase the risk of metabolic disorders in adult offspring, potentially by inducing ER stress and impairing insulin secretion and glucose homeostasis in the pancreas.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Ehsan Hosseini, Mahsa Farid Habibi, Shirin Babri, Gisou Mohaddes, Hajar Abkhezr, Hamed Heydari
Summary: This study investigates the effects of prenatal stress and extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF) exposure on anxiety-like behavior and related pathways in the hippocampus of female rat offspring. The results show that ELF-EMF can induce anxiety-like behavior, which may be due to an increase in the PNMDAr2/NMDAr2 ratio and 24(S)-OHC in the hippocampus. Prenatal stress may contribute to anxiety through a decrease in serotonin and an increase in corticosterone in the hippocampus. Additionally, the study suggests that anxiety-like behavior induced by maternal stress exposure is exacerbated by electromagnetic fields radiation.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Perret Martine, Anzeraey Aude
Summary: Parental age at conception has a significant impact on the longevity of offspring, particularly the age of the mother. However, the age of the father has a minimal effect on offspring longevity. The longevity of female offspring is positively correlated with the longevity of both parents.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Monique Robinson, Kim W. Carter, Craig E. Pennell, Peter Jacoby, Hannah C. Moore, Stephen R. Zubrick, David Burgner
Summary: The study found that increased exposure to stressful life events during pregnancy is associated with sex-specific infection-related hospitalizations in male offspring, but there is little evidence of these associations in female offspring.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Robert J. McDonald, Nancy S. Hong, Jan S. Trow, Chelsea Kaupp, R. J. Balog, London Gokarn, Erin A. Falkenberg, Keiko J. McCreary, Nasrin Soltanpour, Carter Witbeck, Aimee McKenna, Gerlinde A. S. Metz
Summary: Prenatal experiences can have lasting effects on offspring physiology and behavior. Different forms of prenatal stress can impair learning and memory function in adults and increase the risk of anxiety and depression. This study focused on the effects of maternal stress induced by social isolation on cognitive functions in adult offspring, specifically spatial, stimulus-response, and emotional learning and memory.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Reproductive Biology
Yasmine M. Cisse, Kristen R. Montgomery, Hannah C. Zierden, Elizabeth M. Hill, Patrick J. Kane, Weiliang Huang, Maureen A. Kane, Tracy L. Bale
Summary: Entering pregnancy with a history of adversity, including adverse childhood experiences and racial discrimination stress, is a predictor of negative maternal and fetal health outcomes. Little is known about the biological mechanisms by which preconception adverse experiences are stored and impact future offspring health outcomes. In our maternal preconception stress (MPS) model, female mice underwent chronic stress from postnatal days 28-70 and were mated 2 weeks post-stress. Maternal preconception stress dams blunted the pregnancy-induced shift in the circulating extracellular vesicle proteome and reduced glucose tolerance at mid-gestation, suggesting a shift in pregnancy adaptation. To investigate MPS effects at the maternal:fetal interface, we probed the mid-gestation placental, uterine, and fetal brain tissue transcriptome. Male and female placentas differentially regulated expression of genes involved in growth and metabolic signaling in response to gestation in an MPS dam. We also report novel offspring sex- and MPS-specific responses in the uterine tissue apposing these placentas. In the fetal compartment, MPS female offspring reduced expression of neurodevelopmental genes. Using a ribosome-tagging transgenic approach we detected a dramatic increase in genes involved in chromatin regulation in a PVN-enriched neuronal population in females at PN21. While MPS had an additive effect on high-fat-diet (HFD)-induced weight gain in male offspring, both MPS and HFD were necessary to induce significant weight gain in female offspring. These data highlight the preconception period as a determinant of maternal health in pregnancy and provides novel insights into mechanisms by which maternal stress history impacts offspring developmental programming.
BIOLOGY OF REPRODUCTION
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Jessica A. Cusick, Cara L. Wellman, Gregory E. Demas
Summary: The gut microbiome interacts with physiological systems to affect behavior and can be influenced by maternal stress and microbiomes. Maternal stress and microbiome alterations have sex-specific effects on offspring development and behavior. The maternal microbiome plays an important role in mediating offspring development and behavior.
HORMONES AND BEHAVIOR
(2022)