Sunday 31 July 2011

The placenta, sex and stress

We all know that girls and boys are different – but what you might not know is that the placenta of a female baby is different to the placenta of a male baby.
In a recent study in the spiny mouse – a mouse that looks and develops quite differently to the ‘normal’ mouse, it was found that female placentas and male placentas are different in terms of how the placenta looks and the genes that are expressed in the placenta. Not only this, but when we mildly stressed the pregnant mother (we gave the mother a man-made form of her natural stress hormone), the placenta of a female fetus responded to the stress differently to the placenta of a male fetus.

What were some of the differences?
Placentas collected from stress-free mothers were different between the sexes in terms of how much of the mothers’ blood was able to enter/exit the placenta and the expression of a gene (Insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor) important in the growth of the baby and the placenta.
Placentas collected from stressed mothers, were different between the sexes depending on how long after the stress we examined the placenta. For example very soon after we stopped stressing the mother, the structure and gene expression in the placenta was similar between males and females (although very different from non-stressed placentas), but when we examined the placenta 2 weeks after we stopped stressing the mother, the placenta was different for a male and female baby. One such difference was in the expression of the glucose transporter in the placenta. Glucose is very important for the functioning of the placenta and for the growth and development of the baby and we found that after stress, the placenta of a male baby had lower expression of the glucose transporter in the placenta compared to the placenta of a female baby.

What does this mean?
Honestly, we don’t really know what this all means, but we aren’t the first researchers to identify differences in placental structure between the sexes – the differences have even been seen in humans.
This area of research has many more questions to answer and one of the most important questions this study raises is, if a mother gets stressed during pregnancy, should the recommended treatment depend on whether she is carrying a male or female baby?

Read the full article here - http://www.biolreprod.org/cgi/content/abstract/biolreprod.111.093369

Wednesday 27 July 2011

German Research Award for Ritchie Centre Scientist

Dr Marcel Nold has been awarded the 2011 Georges Köhler Prize for oustanding scientific research by the German Society for Immunology. The award is named after the Nobel Laureate Professor Georges Jean Franz Köhler (1946-1995) who described the principles underlying the generation of monoclonal antibodies.

Together with his wife, Claudia, Marcel's work is focussed on developing novel treatments for premature newborn babies with life-threatening diseases such as necrotising enterocolitis and bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Research such as this promises to save countless future lives. Well done Marcel and Claudia.

Euan Wallace, Director


Monday 25 July 2011

Ritchie Centre Scientist wins National Award

Associate Professor Caroline Gargett - a Deputy Director of the Centre and Head of the Women's Health Research Theme - has been announced as the recipient of the 2011 Society for Reproductive Biology-RCRH Award for Excellence in Reproductive Biology Research.

This is an outstanding achievement.

Well done and congratulations, Caroline.


Euan Wallace
Director


Tuesday 19 July 2011

38th Fetal and Neonatal Physiological Society Meeting

Many members of the Ritchie Centre, recently attended the 38th Fetal and Neonatal Physiological Society (FNPS) meeting held in sunny Palm Cove, Australia. FNPS is an international meeting, which brings together physiologists, obstetricians and neonatologists in an informal setting, to discuss new ideas and research outcomes from established and new investigators.

This year, 29 members of the Ritchie Centre attended the FNPS meeting and collectively gave 11 oral presentations, 10 posters and 3 poster-blitz presentations. This equates to 24% of the program of FNPS being occupied by Ritchie Centre staff/students – a very impressive effort.

Equally as impressive was the fact that 2 members of the Ritchie Centre were on the team that won the annual sporting event – always the social highlight of the meeting and a great chance for students (and established researchers) to interact with our overseas colleagues.

Presentations from the Ritchie Centre explored the effects of pre-eclampsia, birth asphyxia, neonatal ventilation, viral infection and inflammation on the fetus, mother and offspring. These effects were looked at in many organs including the brain, lungs, immune system, kidney and heart, and treatments for many of these effects included caffeine, human amnion epithelial cells, creatine and melatonin.

Of course the greatest congratulations must go to Dr. Tamara Yawno and Ms Stacey Ellery for winning the best early post-doc presentation and best poster prize respectively.