Endocrine Abstracts

Increased hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activity in the fetus is a consistent event across different animal species, including the human. Fetal HPA activation contributes both to maturation of organ systems required for extra-uterine life and provides the trigger for the birth process. Precocious activation of the fetal HPA axis, for example in response to an adverse intrauterine environment or periconceptual undernutrition may result in increased incidence of preterm b...