Endocrine Abstracts

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Human adolescent pregnancy is characterised by poor pregnancy outcome; the risks of spontaneous miscarriage, prematurity and low birth-weight are particularly acute in girls who are still growing at the time of conception. Studies using an adolescent sheep paradigm demonstrate that in growing females who are overnourished throughout pregnancy, growth of the placenta is impaired resulting in a major decrease in lamb birth-weight relative to adolescent dams receiving a moderate ...

The fetus and neonate pass through critical periods which permanently determine cardiovascular and endocrine control. Such programming can occur covertly in fetal life, and may ultimately have deleterious consequences for the adult.Animal models demonstrate that maternal dietary imbalance produces offspring with elevated blood pressure and perturbed HPA axis responses. However, the late gestation fetus is not hypertensive, and models such as carunclectom...

Differential changes in placental or fetal growth can result from chronic alterations in the environment depending on their timing and duration. These include thermal stimulation and/or altered photoperiod whose effects may be mediated in part by increased maternal food intake and/or repartitioning of available nutrients across the placenta. Fetal growth can subsequently be enhanced due to increased abundance of fetal anabolic hormones including prolactin. In particular, fetal...