Risk of intellectual disability and maternal history of spontaneous abortion: a nationwide cohort study

Association between previous abortion history and risk of autism spectrum disorders among offspring: a meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Previous studies have been showed an association between previous abortion history and risk of Autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, there is still controversy about true effect estimate of the association.

PURPOSE

This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the association between previous abortion history and the risk of ASD.

METHODS

A systematic search was performed using PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Sciences databases to identify potential studies published until December 2021. The presence of statistical heterogeneity was determined using the I2 value. In the case of substantial heterogeneity, the random-effects model meta-analysis was used to estimate the pooled relative risks. The publication bias was assessed using the Egger and Begg tests.

RESULTS

Thirteen studies with a total of 331,779 children remained in the present meta-analysis. The estimated odds ratio of the risk of ASD associated with previous abortion history was 1.64 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.28-2.0; I2=61.7%) in adjusted studies and 1.10 (95% CI, 1.01-1.20; I2=0.0%) in crude studies, based on the random effect model. There was moderate heterogeneity in adjusted studies. The p values for Egger and Begg regression among children with ASD were 0.393 and 0.056, respectively.

CONCLUSION

This meta-analysis suggests that children born from mothers with a history of previous abortion have an increased risk of development of ASD compared to children of mothers without a history of previous abortion.

Stem Cell-Based Trophoblast Models to Unravel the Genetic Causes of Human Miscarriages

Miscarriage affects approximately 15% of clinically recognized pregnancies, and 1-3% of couples experience pregnancy loss recurrently. Approximately 50-60% of miscarriages result from chromosomal abnormalities, whereas up to 60% of euploid recurrent abortions harbor variants in candidate genes. The growing number of detected genetic variants requires an investigation into their role in adverse pregnancy outcomes. Since placental defects are the main cause of first-trimester miscarriages, the purpose of this review is to provide a survey of state-of-the-art human in vitro trophoblast models that can be used for the functional assessment of specific abnormalities/variants implicated in pregnancy loss. Since 2018, when primary human trophoblast stem cells were first derived, there has been rapid growth in models of trophoblast lineage. It has been found that a proper balance between self-renewal and differentiation in trophoblast progenitors is crucial for the maintenance of pregnancy. Different responses to aneuploidy have been shown in human embryonic and extra-embryonic lineages. Stem cell-based models provide a powerful tool to explore the effect of a specific aneuploidy/variant on the fetus through placental development, which is important, from a clinical point of view, for deciding on the suitability of embryos for transfer after preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy.