Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Maternal circulating cortisol and 24-h urinary free cortisol levels are up to three times higher in third trimester pregnant women compared to non-pregnant women. Maternal cortisol status could be associated with offspring sex, maternal PCOS and testosterone levels.Aims: To determine predictors of maternal serum (S) and urinary (U) cortisol and cortisone levels during 3rd trimester and to examine associations between maternal cortisol status,...

Background: Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are endocrine disrupting chemicals, with elimination half-lives ranging from four to eight years. Experimental studies indicate that PFAS may disrupt androgenic and estrogenic pathways, potentially affecting fetal development. During 1st trimester, concentrations of sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) increase due to higher estrogen levels from the placenta. The increment of SHBG concentration results in a compensatory increase in t...

Background: Maternal cortisol levels increase during pregnancy and prenatal cortisol exposure have been linked to cognitive function in childhood. Higher activity of the enzyme 11β-hydroxysteroid-dehydrogenase type 2 (11β-HSD2) downregulates the amount of maternal cortisol crossing the placenta by inactivation of cortisol to cortisone. In childhood, boys perform significantly poorer in tests of intelligence than girls.Aim: To investigate associ...

Background: Language development during early childhood is considered an important marker of fetal neurodevelopment. Prenatal cortisol exposure plays a critical role in maturation of the fetal brain; however, the effect on offspring language development needs further investigation. This study aimed to evaluate the association between maternal 3rd trimester cortisol and early longitudinal offspring language development and to test whether there was sex differences in...

Background: Maternal free testosterone (FT) increases during 3rd trimester pregnancy and FT levels are higher in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) compared to controls. Fetal exposure to maternal FT during 3rd trimester was associated with lower weight, length and shorter abdominal circumference at birth, in boys. Furthermore, lower birth weight has been related to higher abdominal fat mass in young children.Aim: To examine associations between...

Background: Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are endocrine disrupting chemicals, with elimination half-lives ranging from four to eight years. Experimental studies found PFAS able to interfere with thyroid hormone-binding proteins. During the first 20 weeks of gestation (GW), the fetus is reliant on placental transfer of maternal thyroid hormones, mainly free thyroxine (FT4). However, previous studies investigating associations between exposure to PFAS and thyroid hormone stat...

Background: Prolactin is associated with metabolic risk inside and outside of pregnancy. Maternal prolactin levels could be associated with offspring body composition.Aim: To investigate if maternal prolactin-levels were linked to offspring body composition at seven years of age.Design: Prospective observational cohort study (the Odense Child Cohort).Methods: Maternal fasting blood samples were assessed durin...

Introduction: Maternal thyroid function in early pregnancy is crucial for fetal neural development. Early offspring language acquisition is an important indicator of fetal neural development and a predictor of future cognitive development. We aimed to investigate how the mother’s thyroid function and the presence of thyroid autoimmunity in early pregnancy are associated with offspring’s language acquisition at the age of 12-37 months.Methods: T...

Background: Synthetic glucocorticoid exposure in late pregnancy may be associated with higher blood pressure in offspring. We hypothesized that endogenous cortisol in pregnancy relates to offspring blood pressure (OBP).Objective: To investigate associations between maternal cortisol status in 3rd trimester pregnancy and OBP.Methods: We included 1,317 mother-child pairs from Odense Child Cohort (OCC), an observational prospective co...