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Pandurangan K, Jayakumar J, Savoia S, Nanda R, Lata S, Kumar EH, S S, Vasudevan S, Srinivasan C, Joseph J, Sivaprakasam M, Verma R. Systematic development of immunohistochemistry protocol for large cryosections-specific to non-perfused fetal brain. J Neurosci Methods 2024; 405:110085. [PMID: 38387804 DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2024.110085] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2023] [Revised: 02/01/2024] [Accepted: 02/18/2024] [Indexed: 02/24/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Immunohistochemistry (IHC) is an important technique in understanding the expression of neurochemical molecules in the developing human brain. Despite its routine application in the research and clinical setup, the IHC protocol specific for soft fragile fetal brains that are fixed using the non-perfusion method is still limited in studying the whole brain. NEW METHOD This study shows that the IHC protocols, using a chromogenic detection system, used in animals and adult humans are not optimal in the fetal brains. We have optimized key steps from Antigen retrieval (AR) to chromogen visualization for formalin-fixed whole-brain cryosections (20 µm) mounted on glass slides. RESULTS We show the results from six validated, commonly used antibodies to study the fetal brain. We achieved optimal antigen retrieval with 0.1 M Boric Acid, pH 9.0 at 70°C for 20 minutes. We also present the optimal incubation duration and temperature for protein blocking and the primary antibody that results in specific antigen labeling with minimal tissue damage. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS The IHC protocol commonly used for adult human and animal brains results in significant tissue damage in the fetal brains with little or suboptimal antigen expression. Our new method with important modifications including the temperature, duration, and choice of the alkaline buffer for AR addresses these pitfalls and provides high-quality results. CONCLUSION The optimized IHC protocol for the developing human brain (13-22 GW) provides a high-quality, repeatable, and reliable method for studying chemoarchitecture in neurotypical and pathological conditions across different gestational ages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karthika Pandurangan
- Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
| | - Jaikishan Jayakumar
- Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India; Center for Computational Brain Research, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
| | | | - Reetuparna Nanda
- Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
| | - S Lata
- Mediscan Systems, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
| | | | - Suresh S
- Mediscan Systems, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
| | - Sudha Vasudevan
- Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Saveetha Medical College, Thandalam, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
| | - Chitra Srinivasan
- Department of Pathology, Saveetha Medical College, Thandalam, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
| | - Jayaraj Joseph
- Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India; Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India; Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
| | - Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam
- Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India; Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India; Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
| | - Richa Verma
- Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
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Islam M, Behura SK. Role of paralogs in the sex-bias transcriptional and metabolic regulation of the brain-placental axis in mice. Placenta 2024; 145:143-150. [PMID: 38134547 DOI: 10.1016/j.placenta.2023.12.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2023] [Revised: 12/12/2023] [Accepted: 12/14/2023] [Indexed: 12/24/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Duplicated genes or paralogs play important roles in the adaptive function of eukaryotic genomes. Animal studies have shown evidence for the functional role of paralogs in pregnancy, but our knowledge about the role of paralogs in the fetoplacental regulation remains limited. In particular, if fetoplacental metabolic regulation is modulated by differential expression of paralogs remains unexamined. METHODS In this study, gene expression profiles of day-15 placenta and fetal brain were compared to identify families or groups of paralogous genes expressed in the placenta and brain of male versus female fetuses in mice. A Bayesian modeling was applied to infer directional relationship of transcriptional variation of the paralogs relative to the phylogenetic variation of the genes in each family. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to perform untargeted metabolomics analysis of day-15 placenta and fetal brain of both sexes. RESULTS We identified paralog groups that were expressed in a sex and/or tissue biased manner between the placenta and fetal brain. Bayesian modeling showed evidence for directional relationship between expression and phylogeny of specific paralogs. These relationships were sex specific. GC-MS analysis identified metabolites that were expressed in a sex-bias manner between the placenta and fetal brain. By performing integrative analysis of the metabolomics and gene expression data, we showed that specific groups of metabolites and paralogous genes were expressed in a coordinated manner between the placenta and fetal brain. DISCUSSION The findings of this study collectively suggest that paralogs play an influential role in the regulation of the brain-placental axis in mice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maliha Islam
- Division of Animal Sciences, University of Missouri, 920 East Campus Drive, Columbia, Missouri, 65211, USA
| | - Susanta K Behura
- Division of Animal Sciences, University of Missouri, 920 East Campus Drive, Columbia, Missouri, 65211, USA; MU Institute for Data Science and Informatics, University of Missouri, USA; Interdisciplinary Reproduction and Health Group, University of Missouri, USA; Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, University of Missouri, USA.
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Strawn M, Safranski TJ, Behura SK. Does DNA methylation in the fetal brain leave an epigenetic memory in the blood? Gene 2023; 887:147788. [PMID: 37696423 DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2023.147788] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2023] [Revised: 08/23/2023] [Accepted: 09/07/2023] [Indexed: 09/13/2023]
Abstract
Epigenetic memory is an emerging concept that refers to the process in which epigenetic changes occurring early-in life can lead to long-term programs of gene regulation in time and space. By leveraging neural network regression modeling of DNA methylation data in pigs, we show that specific methylations in the adult blood can reliably predict methylation changes that occurred in the fetal brain. Genes associated with these methylations represented known markers of specific cell types of blood including bone marrow hematopoietic progenitor cells, and ependymal and oligodendrocyte cells of brain. This suggested that methylation changes that occurred in the developing brain were maintained as an epigenetic memory in the blood through the adult life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Monica Strawn
- Division of Animal Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, United States
| | - Timothy J Safranski
- Division of Animal Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, United States
| | - Susanta K Behura
- Division of Animal Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, United States; MU Institute for Data Science and Informatics, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, United States; Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, United States.
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Nakaki A, Crovetto F, Urru A, Piella G, Borras R, Comte V, Vellvé K, Paules C, Segalés L, Dacal M, Gomez Y, Youssef L, Casas R, Castro-Barquero S, Martín-Asuero A, Oller Guzmán T, Morilla I, Martínez-Àran A, Camacho A, Pascual Tutusaus M, Arranz A, Rebollo-Polo M, Gomez-Chiari M, Bargallo N, Pozo ÓJ, Gomez-Gomez A, Izquierdo Renau M, Eixarch E, Vieta E, Estruch R, Crispi F, Gonzalez-Ballester MA, Gratacós E. Effects of Mediterranean diet or mindfulness-based stress reduction on fetal and neonatal brain development: a secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial. Am J Obstet Gynecol MFM 2023; 5:101188. [PMID: 37839546 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajogmf.2023.101188] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2023] [Revised: 09/13/2023] [Accepted: 10/09/2023] [Indexed: 10/17/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Maternal suboptimal nutrition and high stress levels are associated with adverse fetal and infant neurodevelopment. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to investigate if structured lifestyle interventions involving a Mediterranean diet or mindfulness-based stress reduction during pregnancy are associated with differences in fetal and neonatal brain development. STUDY DESIGN This was a secondary analysis of the randomized clinical trial Improving Mothers for a Better Prenatal Care Trial Barcelona that was conducted in Barcelona, Spain, from 2017 to 2020. Participants with singleton pregnancies were randomly allocated into 3 groups, namely Mediterranean diet intervention, stress reduction program, or usual care. Participants in the Mediterranean diet group received monthly individual sessions and free provision of extra-virgin olive oil and walnuts. Pregnant women in the stress reduction group underwent an 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction program adapted for pregnancy. Magnetic resonance imaging of 90 fetal brains was performed at 36 to 39 weeks of gestation and the Neonatal Neurobehavioral Assessment Scale was completed for 692 newborns at 1 to 3 months. Fetal outcomes were the total brain volume and lobular or regional volumes obtained from a 3-dimensional reconstruction and semiautomatic segmentation of magnetic resonance images. Neonatal outcomes were the 6 clusters scores of the Neonatal Neurobehavioral Assessment Scale. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to assess the association between the interventions and the fetal and neonatal outcomes. RESULTS When compared with the usual care group, the offspring exposed to a maternal Mediterranean diet had a larger total fetal brain volume (mean, 284.11 cm3; standard deviation, 23.92 cm3 vs 294.01 cm3; standard deviation, 26.29 cm3; P=.04), corpus callosum (mean, 1.16 cm3; standard deviation, 0.19 cm3 vs 1.26 cm3; standard deviation, 0.22 cm3; P=.03), and right frontal lobe (44.20; standard deviation, 4.09 cm3 vs 46.60; standard deviation, 4.69 cm3; P=.02) volumes based on magnetic resonance imaging measures and higher scores in the Neonatal Neurobehavioral Assessment Scale clusters of autonomic stability (mean, 7.4; standard deviation, 0.9 vs 7.6; standard deviation, 0.7; P=.04), social interaction (mean, 7.5; standard deviation, 1.5 vs 7.8; standard deviation, 1.3; P=.03), and range of state (mean, 4.3; standard deviation, 1.3 vs 4.5; standard deviation, 1.0; P=.04). When compared with the usual care group, offspring from the stress reduction group had larger fetal left anterior cingulate gyri volume (1.63; standard deviation, 0.32 m3 vs 1.79; standard deviation, 0.30 cm3; P=.03) based on magnetic resonance imaging and higher scores in the Neonatal Neurobehavioral Assessment Scale for regulation of state (mean, 6.0; standard deviation, 1.8 vs 6.5; standard deviation, 1.5; P<.01). CONCLUSION Maternal structured lifestyle interventions involving the promotion of a Mediterranean diet or stress reduction during pregnancy were associated with changes in fetal and neonatal brain development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ayako Nakaki
- BCNatal Fetal Medicine Research Center, Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Crovetto, Vellvé, Paules, Segalés, Ms Dacal, Drs Gomez, Youssef, Castro-Barquero, Mses Camacho and Pascual Tutsaus, and Drs Arranz, Gomez-Chairi, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos); Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Bargallo, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos); Department of Surgery and Surgical specializations, Faculty of Medicine and Helath Sciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Crovetto, Vellvé, Castro-Barquero, Arranz, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos)
| | - Francesca Crovetto
- BCNatal Fetal Medicine Research Center, Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Crovetto, Vellvé, Paules, Segalés, Ms Dacal, Drs Gomez, Youssef, Castro-Barquero, Mses Camacho and Pascual Tutsaus, and Drs Arranz, Gomez-Chairi, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos); Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu, Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain (Drs Crovetto, Izquierdo Renau, and Gratacos)
| | - Andrea Urru
- BCN MedTech, Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Urru and Piella, Mr Comte, and Dr Gonzalez-Ballester)
| | - Gemma Piella
- BCN MedTech, Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Urru and Piella, Mr Comte, and Dr Gonzalez-Ballester)
| | - Roger Borras
- Cardiovascular Institute, Hospital Clínic, IDIBAPS, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain (Mr Borras); Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain (Mr Borras and Dr Bargallo)
| | - Valentin Comte
- BCN MedTech, Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Urru and Piella, Mr Comte, and Dr Gonzalez-Ballester)
| | - Kilian Vellvé
- BCNatal Fetal Medicine Research Center, Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Crovetto, Vellvé, Paules, Segalés, Ms Dacal, Drs Gomez, Youssef, Castro-Barquero, Mses Camacho and Pascual Tutsaus, and Drs Arranz, Gomez-Chairi, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos)
| | - Cristina Paules
- BCNatal Fetal Medicine Research Center, Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Crovetto, Vellvé, Paules, Segalés, Ms Dacal, Drs Gomez, Youssef, Castro-Barquero, Mses Camacho and Pascual Tutsaus, and Drs Arranz, Gomez-Chairi, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos)
| | - Laura Segalés
- BCNatal Fetal Medicine Research Center, Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Crovetto, Vellvé, Paules, Segalés, Ms Dacal, Drs Gomez, Youssef, Castro-Barquero, Mses Camacho and Pascual Tutsaus, and Drs Arranz, Gomez-Chairi, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos)
| | - Marta Dacal
- BCNatal Fetal Medicine Research Center, Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Crovetto, Vellvé, Paules, Segalés, Ms Dacal, Drs Gomez, Youssef, Castro-Barquero, Mses Camacho and Pascual Tutsaus, and Drs Arranz, Gomez-Chairi, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos)
| | - Yvan Gomez
- BCNatal Fetal Medicine Research Center, Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Crovetto, Vellvé, Paules, Segalés, Ms Dacal, Drs Gomez, Youssef, Castro-Barquero, Mses Camacho and Pascual Tutsaus, and Drs Arranz, Gomez-Chairi, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos)
| | - Lina Youssef
- BCNatal Fetal Medicine Research Center, Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Crovetto, Vellvé, Paules, Segalés, Ms Dacal, Drs Gomez, Youssef, Castro-Barquero, Mses Camacho and Pascual Tutsaus, and Drs Arranz, Gomez-Chairi, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos); Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, Hospital Clinic, University of Barcelona Campus, Barcelona, Spain (Dr Youssef)
| | - Rosa Casas
- Department of Internal Medicine Hospital Clinic, IDIBAPS, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Casas, Castro-Barquero, and Estruch); Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERON), Madrid, Spain (Drs Casas, Castro-Barquero, and Estruch)
| | - Sara Castro-Barquero
- BCNatal Fetal Medicine Research Center, Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Crovetto, Vellvé, Paules, Segalés, Ms Dacal, Drs Gomez, Youssef, Castro-Barquero, Mses Camacho and Pascual Tutsaus, and Drs Arranz, Gomez-Chairi, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos); Department of Internal Medicine Hospital Clinic, IDIBAPS, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Casas, Castro-Barquero, and Estruch); Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERON), Madrid, Spain (Drs Casas, Castro-Barquero, and Estruch)
| | - Andrés Martín-Asuero
- Instituto esMindfulness, Barcelona, Spain (Dr Martín-Asuero and Ms Oller Guzmán)
| | - Teresa Oller Guzmán
- Instituto esMindfulness, Barcelona, Spain (Dr Martín-Asuero and Ms Oller Guzmán)
| | - Ivette Morilla
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Hospital Clinic, Neuroscience Institute, IDIBAPS, University of Barcelona, CIBERSAM, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Morilla, Martínez-Àran, and Vieta)
| | - Anabel Martínez-Àran
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Hospital Clinic, Neuroscience Institute, IDIBAPS, University of Barcelona, CIBERSAM, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Morilla, Martínez-Àran, and Vieta)
| | - Alba Camacho
- BCNatal Fetal Medicine Research Center, Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Crovetto, Vellvé, Paules, Segalés, Ms Dacal, Drs Gomez, Youssef, Castro-Barquero, Mses Camacho and Pascual Tutsaus, and Drs Arranz, Gomez-Chairi, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos)
| | - Mireia Pascual Tutusaus
- BCNatal Fetal Medicine Research Center, Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Crovetto, Vellvé, Paules, Segalés, Ms Dacal, Drs Gomez, Youssef, Castro-Barquero, Mses Camacho and Pascual Tutsaus, and Drs Arranz, Gomez-Chairi, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos)
| | - Angela Arranz
- BCNatal Fetal Medicine Research Center, Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Crovetto, Vellvé, Paules, Segalés, Ms Dacal, Drs Gomez, Youssef, Castro-Barquero, Mses Camacho and Pascual Tutsaus, and Drs Arranz, Gomez-Chairi, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos)
| | - Monica Rebollo-Polo
- Diagnostic Imaging and Image Guided Therapy, Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Dèu, Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain (Drs Rebollo-Polo and Gomez-Chiari); Radiology Department, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland (Dr Rebollo-Polo)
| | - Marta Gomez-Chiari
- BCNatal Fetal Medicine Research Center, Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Crovetto, Vellvé, Paules, Segalés, Ms Dacal, Drs Gomez, Youssef, Castro-Barquero, Mses Camacho and Pascual Tutsaus, and Drs Arranz, Gomez-Chairi, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos); Diagnostic Imaging and Image Guided Therapy, Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Dèu, Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain (Drs Rebollo-Polo and Gomez-Chiari); Diagnostic Imaging Department, Hospital Sant Joan de Dèu, Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain (Dr Gomez-Chiari)
| | - Nuria Bargallo
- Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Bargallo, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos); Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain (Mr Borras and Dr Bargallo); Radiology Department, Center of Image Diagnostic, Hospital Clínic. Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain (Dr Bargallo)
| | - Óscar J Pozo
- Applied Metabolomics Research Group, IMIM-Institut Hospital del Mar d'Investigacions Mèdiques, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Pozo and Gomez-Gomez)
| | - Alex Gomez-Gomez
- Applied Metabolomics Research Group, IMIM-Institut Hospital del Mar d'Investigacions Mèdiques, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Pozo and Gomez-Gomez)
| | - Montserrat Izquierdo Renau
- Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu, Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain (Drs Crovetto, Izquierdo Renau, and Gratacos); Neonatology Department, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain (Dr Izquierdo Renau)
| | - Elisenda Eixarch
- BCNatal Fetal Medicine Research Center, Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Crovetto, Vellvé, Paules, Segalés, Ms Dacal, Drs Gomez, Youssef, Castro-Barquero, Mses Camacho and Pascual Tutsaus, and Drs Arranz, Gomez-Chairi, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos); Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Bargallo, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos); Centre for Biomedical Research on Rare Diseases (CIBER-ER), Madrid, Spain (Drs Eixarch, Crispi, and Gratacos)
| | - Eduard Vieta
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Hospital Clinic, Neuroscience Institute, IDIBAPS, University of Barcelona, CIBERSAM, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Morilla, Martínez-Àran, and Vieta)
| | - Ramon Estruch
- Department of Internal Medicine Hospital Clinic, IDIBAPS, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Casas, Castro-Barquero, and Estruch); Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERON), Madrid, Spain (Drs Casas, Castro-Barquero, and Estruch)
| | - Fàtima Crispi
- BCNatal Fetal Medicine Research Center, Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Crovetto, Vellvé, Paules, Segalés, Ms Dacal, Drs Gomez, Youssef, Castro-Barquero, Mses Camacho and Pascual Tutsaus, and Drs Arranz, Gomez-Chairi, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos); Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Bargallo, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos); Centre for Biomedical Research on Rare Diseases (CIBER-ER), Madrid, Spain (Drs Eixarch, Crispi, and Gratacos).
| | - Miguel Angel Gonzalez-Ballester
- BCN MedTech, Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Urru and Piella, Mr Comte, and Dr Gonzalez-Ballester); ICREA, Barcelona, Spain (Dr Gonzalez-Ballester)
| | - Eduard Gratacós
- BCNatal Fetal Medicine Research Center, Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Crovetto, Vellvé, Paules, Segalés, Ms Dacal, Drs Gomez, Youssef, Castro-Barquero, Mses Camacho and Pascual Tutsaus, and Drs Arranz, Gomez-Chairi, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos); Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain (Drs Nakaki, Bargallo, Eixarch, Crispi and Gratacos); Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu, Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain (Drs Crovetto, Izquierdo Renau, and Gratacos); Centre for Biomedical Research on Rare Diseases (CIBER-ER), Madrid, Spain (Drs Eixarch, Crispi, and Gratacos)
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Atallah M, Yamashita T, Hu X, Hu X, Abe K. Edaravone Confers Neuroprotective, Anti-inflammatory, and Antioxidant Effects on the Fetal Brain of a Placental-ischemia Mouse Model. J Neuroimmune Pharmacol 2023; 18:640-656. [PMID: 37924374 DOI: 10.1007/s11481-023-10095-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2023] [Accepted: 10/22/2023] [Indexed: 11/06/2023]
Abstract
Reduced uterine perfusion pressure (RUPP) is a well-established model which mimics many clinical features of preeclampsia (PE). Edaravone is a free radical scavenger with neuroprotective, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects against different models of cerebral ischemia. Therefore, we aimed to elucidate the different potential mechanisms through which PE affects fetal brain development using our previously established RUPP-placental ischemia mouse model. In addition, we investigated the neuroprotective effect of edaravone against the RUPP-induced fetal brain development alterations. On gestation day (GD) 13, pregnant mice were divided into four groups; sham (SV), edaravone (SE), RUPP (RV), and RUPP+edaravone (RE). SV and SE groups underwent sham surgeries, however, RV and RE groups were subjected to RUPP surgery via bilateral uterine ligation. Edaravone (3mg/kg) was injected via tail i.v. injection from GD 14-18. The fetal brains from different groups were collected on GD 18 and subjected to further investigations. The results showed that RUPP altered the structure of fetal brain cortex, induced neurodegeneration, increased the expression of the investigated pro-inflammatory markers; TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, and MMP-9. RUPP resulted in microglial and astrocyte activation in the fetal brains, in addition to upregulation of Hif-1α and iNOS. Edaravone conferred a neuroprotective effect via alleviating the inflammatory response, restoring the neuronal structure and decreasing oxidative stress in the developing fetal brain. In conclusion, RUPP-placental ischemia mouse model could be a useful tool to further understand the underlying mechanisms of PE-induced child neuronal alterations. Edaravone could be a potential adjuvant therapy during PE to protect the developing fetal brain. The current study investigated the effects of a placenta-induced ischemia mouse model using reduced uterine perfusion pressure (RUPP) surgery on the fetal brain development and the potential neuroprotective effects of the drug edaravone. The study found that the RUPP model caused neurodegeneration and a pro-inflammatory response in the developing fetal brain, as well as hypoxia and oxidative stress. However, maternal injection of edaravone showed a strong ability to protect against these detrimental effects and target multiple pathways associated with neuronal damage. The current study suggests that the RUPP model could be useful for further study of the impact of preeclampsia on fetal brain development and that edaravone may have potential as a therapy for protecting against this damage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marwa Atallah
- Vertebrates Comparative Anatomy and Embryology, Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Menoufia University, Shibin El-Koom, Egypt.
| | - Toru Yamashita
- Department of Neurology, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Okayama, Japan
| | - Xiao Hu
- Department of Neurology, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Okayama, Japan
| | - Xinran Hu
- Department of Neurology, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Okayama, Japan
| | - Koji Abe
- Department of Neurology, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Okayama, Japan
- National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry (NCNP), National Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
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Altmann R, Rechberger T, Altmann C, Hirtler L, Scharnreitner I, Stelzl P, Enengl S. Development of the prosencephalic structures, ganglionic eminence, basal ganglia and thalamus at 11 + 3 to 13 + 6 gestational weeks on 3D transvaginal ultrasound including normative data. Brain Struct Funct 2023; 228:2089-2101. [PMID: 37712966 PMCID: PMC10587255 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-023-02679-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2023] [Accepted: 07/02/2023] [Indexed: 09/16/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES To show the development of ganglionic eminence, basal ganglia and thalamus/hypothalamus in week 11 + 3 to 13 + 6 by transvaginal 3D ultrasound. METHODS To visualize the prosencephalic structures surrounding the 3rd ventricle, 285 three-dimensional ultrasound volume blocks from 402 fetuses examined were selected in a prospective transvaginal 3D study to compare ultrasound images of ganglionic eminence, basal ganglia, thalamus/hypothalamus with embryological sections. In addition, measurements of the described structures were made in 104 fetuses to quantify the embryological development. RESULTS The sonomorphologic characteristics of ganglionic eminence, basal ganglia and thalamus/hypothalamus are described in 71% of the fetuses examined. Measurements of the structures in 57% of the fetuses, show the following results: axGE ap = 0.17 + 0.112*CRL; axGE/I = 0.888 + 0.048*CRL; axGE/BG = 0.569 + 0.041*CRL; coGE/BG = 0.381 + 0.048*CRL; coTh lat = - 0.002 + 0.135*CRL; coTh/HyT = 3.68 + 0.059*CRL; co3.V lat = 0.54 + 0.008*CRL. CONCLUSION Transvaginal 3D neurosonography allows visualization and measurement of normal structures in the fetal prosencephalon at 11 + 3 to 13 + 6 weeks of gestation (GW) including details of ganglionic eminence (GE), basal ganglia (BG), and thalamus/hypothalamus (Th/HyT). Further scientific work is needed before using the results to decide on pathological changes in patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- R Altmann
- Department of Gynecology, Obstetrics and Gynecological Endocrinology, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Kepler University Hospital, Altenberger Strasse 69, 4040 Linz and Krankenhausstraße 26-30, 4020, Linz, Austria.
| | - T Rechberger
- Department of Gynecology, Obstetrics and Gynecological Endocrinology, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Kepler University Hospital, Altenberger Strasse 69, 4040 Linz and Krankenhausstraße 26-30, 4020, Linz, Austria
| | - C Altmann
- Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Kepler University Hospital, Altenberger Strasse 69, 4040 Linz and Krankenhausstrasse 26-30, 4020, Linz, Austria
| | - L Hirtler
- Division of Anatomy, Center for Anatomy and Cell Biology, Medical University of Vienna, Spitalgasse 23, 1090, Vienna, Austria
| | - I Scharnreitner
- Department of Gynecology, Obstetrics and Gynecological Endocrinology, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Kepler University Hospital, Altenberger Strasse 69, 4040 Linz and Krankenhausstraße 26-30, 4020, Linz, Austria
| | - P Stelzl
- Department of Gynecology, Obstetrics and Gynecological Endocrinology, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Kepler University Hospital, Altenberger Strasse 69, 4040 Linz and Krankenhausstraße 26-30, 4020, Linz, Austria
| | - S Enengl
- Department of Gynecology, Obstetrics and Gynecological Endocrinology, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Kepler University Hospital, Altenberger Strasse 69, 4040 Linz and Krankenhausstraße 26-30, 4020, Linz, Austria
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Sepulveda W, Sepulveda F, Schonstedt V, Stern J, Diaz-Serani R. Neuroimaging Findings in Fetal Hemimegalencephaly: Case Study and Review. Fetal Diagn Ther 2023; 51:133-144. [PMID: 38008087 DOI: 10.1159/000535406] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2023] [Accepted: 11/17/2023] [Indexed: 11/28/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Limited information exists in the prenatal literature regarding the neuroimaging features of fetal hemimegalencephaly. SUMMARY This report describes ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in a second-trimester fetus with an isolated, severe form of hemimegalencephaly. The most prominent imaging findings included unilateral enlarged cerebral hemisphere and ipsilateral ventriculomegaly causing cerebral asymmetry, midline shift, and macrocephaly. Abnormal cortical development imaging signs were also evident. A literature review encompassing 23 reports describing 36 cases, including ours, is presented. KEY MESSAGES Characteristic ultrasound findings for the diagnosis of hemimegalencephaly are not always apparent prenatally. Asymmetric ventriculomegaly emerges as the most common but nonspecific presenting feature during routine second- or third-trimester ultrasound scans. Subsequent high-resolution prenatal neurosonography and fetal MRI facilitate definitive prenatal diagnosis, showcasting associated features primarily related to cortical migration, differentiation, and maturation. Postnatally, the prognosis is poor due to intractable seizures, hemiplegia, and progressive neurodevelopmental delay.
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Affiliation(s)
- Waldo Sepulveda
- FETALMED-Maternal-Fetal Diagnostic Center, Fetal Imaging Unit, Santiago, Chile
| | - Francisco Sepulveda
- FETALMED-Maternal-Fetal Diagnostic Center, Fetal Imaging Unit, Santiago, Chile
- Department of Radiology, Clinica Alemana, Santiago, Chile
- Department of Neuroradiology, Institute of Neurosurgery "Dr. Alfonso Asenjo", National Health Service, Santiago, Chile
| | | | - Jocelyn Stern
- FETALMED-Maternal-Fetal Diagnostic Center, Fetal Imaging Unit, Santiago, Chile
| | - Ricardo Diaz-Serani
- Maternal-Fetal Medicine Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Clinica BUPA, Santiago, Chile
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8
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Mercer GV, Harvey NE, Steeves KL, Schneider CM, Sled JG, Macgowan CK, Baschat AA, Kingdom JC, Simpson AJ, Simpson MJ, Jobst KJ, Cahill LS. Maternal exposure to polystyrene nanoplastics alters fetal brain metabolism in mice. Metabolomics 2023; 19:96. [PMID: 37989919 DOI: 10.1007/s11306-023-02061-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2023] [Accepted: 10/31/2023] [Indexed: 11/23/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Plastics used in everyday materials accumulate as waste in the environment and degrade over time. The impacts of the resulting particulate micro- and nanoplastics on human health remain largely unknown. In pregnant mice, we recently demonstrated that exposure to nanoplastics throughout gestation and during lactation resulted in changes in brain structure detected on MRI. One possible explanation for this abnormal postnatal brain development is altered fetal brain metabolism. OBJECTIVES To determine the effect of maternal exposure to nanoplastics on fetal brain metabolism. METHODS Healthy pregnant CD-1 mice were exposed to 50 nm polystyrene nanoplastics at a concentration of 106 ng/L through drinking water during gestation. Fetal brain samples were collected at embryonic day 17.5 (n = 18-21 per group per sex) and snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen. Magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance was used to determine metabolite profiles and their relative concentrations in the fetal brain. RESULTS The relative concentrations of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), creatine and glucose were found to decrease by 40%, 21% and 30% respectively following maternal nanoplastic exposure when compared to the controls (p < 0.05). The change in relative concentration of asparagine with nanoplastic exposure was dependent on fetal sex (p < 0.005). CONCLUSION Maternal exposure to polystyrene nanoplastics caused abnormal fetal brain metabolism in mice. The present study demonstrates the potential impacts of nanoplastic exposure during fetal development and motivates further studies to evaluate the risk to human pregnancies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Grace V Mercer
- Department of Chemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Arctic Avenue St. John's, St. John's, Newfoundland, NL, A1C 5S7, Canada
| | - Nikita E Harvey
- Department of Chemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Arctic Avenue St. John's, St. John's, Newfoundland, NL, A1C 5S7, Canada
| | - Katherine L Steeves
- Department of Chemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Arctic Avenue St. John's, St. John's, Newfoundland, NL, A1C 5S7, Canada
| | - Céline M Schneider
- Department of Chemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Arctic Avenue St. John's, St. John's, Newfoundland, NL, A1C 5S7, Canada
| | - John G Sled
- Mouse Imaging Centre, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Translational Medicine, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Christopher K Macgowan
- Translational Medicine, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Ahmet A Baschat
- Department of Gynecology & Obstetrics, Johns Hopkins Center for Fetal Therapy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - John C Kingdom
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - André J Simpson
- Environmental NMR Centre, Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Myrna J Simpson
- Environmental NMR Centre, Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Karl J Jobst
- Department of Chemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Arctic Avenue St. John's, St. John's, Newfoundland, NL, A1C 5S7, Canada
| | - Lindsay S Cahill
- Department of Chemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Arctic Avenue St. John's, St. John's, Newfoundland, NL, A1C 5S7, Canada.
- Discipline of Radiology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
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9
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Blundell M, Doktor F, Figueira RL, Khalaj K, Biouss G, Antounians L, Zani A. Anti-inflammatory effects of antenatal administration of stem cell derived extracellular vesicles in the brain of rat fetuses with congenital diaphragmatic hernia. Pediatr Surg Int 2023; 39:291. [PMID: 37955723 DOI: 10.1007/s00383-023-05578-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/22/2023] [Indexed: 11/14/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) survivors may experience neurodevelopmental impairment, whose etiology remains elusive. Preclinical evidence indicates that amniotic fluid stem cell extracellular vesicle (AFSC-EV) administration promotes lung development but their effects on other organs are unknown. Herein, we investigated the brain of rat fetuses with CDH for signs of inflammation and response to AFSC-EVs. METHODS CDH was induced by maternal nitrofen administration at E9.5. At E18.5, fetuses were injected intra-amniotically with saline or AFSC-EVs (isolated by ultracentrifugation, characterized as per MISEV guidelines). Fetuses from vehicle-gavaged dams served as controls. Groups were compared for: lung hypoplasia, TNFa and IL-1B brain expression, and activated microglia (Iba1) density in the subgranular zone (SGZ). RESULTS CDH lungs had fewer airspaces compared to controls, whereas AFSC-EV-treated lungs had rescued branching morphogenesis. Fluorescently labeled AFSC-EVs injected intra-amniotically into CDH fetuses had fluorescent signal in the brain. Compared to controls, the brain of CDH fetuses had higher TNFa and IL-1B levels, and increased activated microglia density. Conversely, the brain of AFSC-EV treated fetuses had inflammatory marker expression levels and microglia density similar to controls. CONCLUSION This study shows that the brain of rat fetuses with CDH has signs of inflammation that are abated by the intra-amniotic administration of AFSC-EVs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matisse Blundell
- Developmental and Stem Cell Biology Program, Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, M5G 0A4, Canada
- Division of General and Thoracic Surgery, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, M5G 1X8, Canada
| | - Fabian Doktor
- Developmental and Stem Cell Biology Program, Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, M5G 0A4, Canada
- Division of General and Thoracic Surgery, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, M5G 1X8, Canada
| | - Rebeca L Figueira
- Developmental and Stem Cell Biology Program, Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, M5G 0A4, Canada
- Division of General and Thoracic Surgery, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, M5G 1X8, Canada
| | - Kasra Khalaj
- Developmental and Stem Cell Biology Program, Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, M5G 0A4, Canada
- Division of General and Thoracic Surgery, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, M5G 1X8, Canada
| | - George Biouss
- Developmental and Stem Cell Biology Program, Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, M5G 0A4, Canada
- Division of General and Thoracic Surgery, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, M5G 1X8, Canada
| | - Lina Antounians
- Developmental and Stem Cell Biology Program, Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, M5G 0A4, Canada
- Division of General and Thoracic Surgery, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, M5G 1X8, Canada
| | - Augusto Zani
- Developmental and Stem Cell Biology Program, Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, M5G 0A4, Canada.
- Division of General and Thoracic Surgery, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, M5G 1X8, Canada.
- Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, M5T 1P5, Canada.
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Tamayo JM, Osman HC, Schwartzer JJ, Pinkerton KE, Ashwood P. Characterizing the neuroimmune environment of offspring in a novel model of maternal allergic asthma and particulate matter exposure. J Neuroinflammation 2023; 20:252. [PMID: 37919762 PMCID: PMC10621097 DOI: 10.1186/s12974-023-02930-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2023] [Accepted: 10/12/2023] [Indexed: 11/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Inflammation during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk for neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). Increased gestational inflammation can be a result of an immune condition/disease, exposure to infection, and/or environmental factors. Epidemiology studies suggest that cases of NDD are on the rise. Similarly, rates of asthma are increasing, and the presence of maternal asthma during pregnancy increases the likelihood of a child being later diagnosed with NDD such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Particulate matter (PM), via air pollution, is an environmental factor known to worsen the symptoms of asthma, but also, PM has been associated with increased risk of neuropsychiatric disorders. Despite the links between asthma and PM with neuropsychiatric disorders, there is a lack of laboratory models investigating combined prenatal exposure to asthma and PM on offspring neurodevelopment. Thus, we developed a novel mouse model that combines exposure to maternal allergic asthma (MAA) and ultrafine iron-soot (UIS), a common component of PM. In the current study, female BALB/c mice were sensitized for allergic asthma with ovalbumin (OVA) prior to pregnancy. Following mating and beginning on gestational day 2 (GD2), dams were exposed to either aerosolized OVA to induce allergic asthma or phosphate buffered saline (PBS) for 1 h. Following the 1-h exposure, pregnant females were then exposed to UIS with a size distribution of 55 to 169 nm at an average concentration of 176 ± 45 μg/m3) (SD), or clean air for 4 h, over 8 exposure sessions. Offspring brains were collected at postnatal days (P)15 and (P)35. Cortices and hippocampal regions were then isolated and assessed for changes in cytokines using a Luminex bead-based multiplex assay. Analyses identified changes in many cytokines across treatment groups at both timepoints in the cortex, including interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), and IL-17, which remained elevated from P15 to P35 in all treatment conditions compared to controls. There was a suppressive effect of the combined MAA plus UIS on the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10. Potentially shifting the cytokine balance towards more neuroinflammation. In the hippocampus at P15, elevations in cytokines were also identified across the treatment groups, namely IL-7. The combination of MAA and UIS exposure (MAA-UIS) during pregnancy resulted in an increase in microglia density in the hippocampus of offspring, as identified by IBA-1 staining. Together, these data indicate that exposure to MAA, UIS, and MAA-UIS result in changes in the neuroimmune environment of offspring that persist into adulthood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juan M Tamayo
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, and the M.I.N.D. Institute, University of California at Davis, 2805, 50th Street Sacramento, Davis, CA, 95817, USA
| | - Hadley C Osman
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, and the M.I.N.D. Institute, University of California at Davis, 2805, 50th Street Sacramento, Davis, CA, 95817, USA
| | - Jared J Schwartzer
- Program in Neuroscience and Behavior, Department of Psychology and Education, Mount Holyoke College, 50 College Street, South Hadley, MA, 01075, USA
| | - Kent E Pinkerton
- Center for Health and the Environment, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA, 95616, USA
| | - Paul Ashwood
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, and the M.I.N.D. Institute, University of California at Davis, 2805, 50th Street Sacramento, Davis, CA, 95817, USA.
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11
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Singal K, Adamczyk K, Hurt L, Woolner A, Paranjothy S. Isolated choroid plexus cysts and health and developmental outcomes in childhood and adolescence - A systematic review. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol 2023; 290:115-122. [PMID: 37778251 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejogrb.2023.09.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2023] [Revised: 09/05/2023] [Accepted: 09/14/2023] [Indexed: 10/03/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Choroid plexus cysts (CPCs) are incidental findings on ultrasound examination of the fetal brain. It is not known if isolated CPCs are associated with any adverse health or neurodevelopmental outcomes during the life course. This systematic review aimed to collate and synthesize the evidence on whether or not isolated choroid plexus cysts are associated with an increased risk of adverse health or developmental outcomes during childhood and adolescence. METHODS A search strategy was developed specifically for this study and applied to four electronic databases Medline (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Studies were assessed and selected for inclusion if there was a measurement of CPC (including single or multiple; unilateral or bilateral; isolated or presenting alongside other markers) during the antenatal or early neonatal period (<7 days) with follow-up of children and adolescents for health and developmental outcomes measured at any time from age 1 month onwards. Study quality was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale. Due to heterogeneity in the types of outcome measures included and the timing of measurement of outcomes across the studies, it was not possible to pool data across studies and a narrative description of findings was presented. RESULTS Eight studies (three cohorts and five case series) met the inclusion criteria. Different methods were used for outcome assessment, such as in-person assessment, parent questionnaires, medical records, and telephone interviews with parents. Six studies measured outcomes only once during the specified duration of follow-up; two studies carried out paediatric reviews of the children several times during follow-up. There were no differences in developmental outcomes or physical health between babies with CPCs reported in the three cohort studies, and no abnormalities were detected in the children that were followed up in four of the five case series studies. Most of the included studies were graded as low quality due to the small sample size, high risk of selection bias, unclear definitions of CPC or lack of a comparison group. CONCLUSIONS The studies conducted to date do not provide evidence of adverse physical health outcomes or neurodevelopmental delays in babies with CPCs. However, most of these studies were small and included a narrow range of outcomes. Further research is needed to explore the relative incidence of outcomes such as ASD, ADHD, epilepsy and educational attainment in children with CPCs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kusum Singal
- Aberdeen Center for Health Data Sciences, Institute of Applied Health Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom.
| | - Krzysztof Adamczyk
- Aberdeen Center for Health Data Sciences, Institute of Applied Health Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom.
| | - Lisa Hurt
- Division of Population Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom.
| | - Andrea Woolner
- Aberdeen Centre for Women's Health Research, Institute of Applied Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom.
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12
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Hendrix CL, Ji L, Werchan DM, Majbri A, Trentacosta CJ, Burt SA, Thomason ME. Fetal Frontolimbic Connectivity Prospectively Associates With Aggression in Toddlers. Biol Psychiatry Glob Open Sci 2023; 3:969-978. [PMID: 37881555 PMCID: PMC10593887 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsgos.2022.09.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2022] [Revised: 08/15/2022] [Accepted: 09/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Aggression is a major public health concern that emerges early in development and lacks optimized treatment, highlighting need for improved mechanistic understanding regarding the etiology of aggression. The present study leveraged fetal resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify candidate neurocircuitry for the onset of aggressive behaviors before symptom emergence. Methods Pregnant mothers were recruited during the third trimester of pregnancy to complete a fetal resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Mothers subsequently completed the Child Behavior Checklist to assess child aggression at 3 years postpartum (n = 79). Independent component analysis was used to define frontal and limbic regions of interest. Results Child aggression was not related to within-network connectivity of subcortical limbic regions or within-medial prefrontal network connectivity in fetuses. However, weaker functional coupling between the subcortical limbic network and medial prefrontal network in fetuses was prospectively associated with greater maternal-rated child aggression at 3 years of age even after controlling for maternal emotion dysregulation and toddler language ability. We observed similar, but weaker, associations between fetal frontolimbic functional connectivity and toddler internalizing symptoms. Conclusions Neural correlates of aggressive behavior may be detectable in utero, well before the onset of aggression symptoms. These preliminary results highlight frontolimbic connections as potential candidate neurocircuitry that should be further investigated in relation to the unfolding of child behavior and psychiatric risk.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cassandra L. Hendrix
- Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, NYU Langone Health, New York, New York
| | - Lanxin Ji
- Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, NYU Langone Health, New York, New York
| | - Denise M. Werchan
- Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, NYU Langone Health, New York, New York
- Department of Population Health, NYU Langone Health, New York, New York
| | - Amyn Majbri
- Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, NYU Langone Health, New York, New York
| | | | - S. Alexandra Burt
- Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, Lansing, Michigan
| | - Moriah E. Thomason
- Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, NYU Langone Health, New York, New York
- Department of Population Health, NYU Langone Health, New York, New York
- Neuroscience Institute, NYU Langone Health, New York, New York
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13
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Ciceri T, Squarcina L, Giubergia A, Bertoldo A, Brambilla P, Peruzzo D. Review on deep learning fetal brain segmentation from Magnetic Resonance images. Artif Intell Med 2023; 143:102608. [PMID: 37673558 DOI: 10.1016/j.artmed.2023.102608] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2022] [Revised: 05/31/2023] [Accepted: 06/06/2023] [Indexed: 09/08/2023]
Abstract
Brain segmentation is often the first and most critical step in quantitative analysis of the brain for many clinical applications, including fetal imaging. Different aspects challenge the segmentation of the fetal brain in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), such as the non-standard position of the fetus owing to his/her movements during the examination, rapid brain development, and the limited availability of imaging data. In recent years, several segmentation methods have been proposed for automatically partitioning the fetal brain from MR images. These algorithms aim to define regions of interest with different shapes and intensities, encompassing the entire brain, or isolating specific structures. Deep learning techniques, particularly convolutional neural networks (CNNs), have become a state-of-the-art approach in the field because they can provide reliable segmentation results over heterogeneous datasets. Here, we review the deep learning algorithms developed in the field of fetal brain segmentation and categorize them according to their target structures. Finally, we discuss the perceived research gaps in the literature of the fetal domain, suggesting possible future research directions that could impact the management of fetal MR images.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tommaso Ciceri
- NeuroImaging Laboratory, Scientific Institute IRCCS Eugenio Medea, Bosisio Parini, Italy; Department of Information Engineering, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
| | - Letizia Squarcina
- Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | - Alice Giubergia
- NeuroImaging Laboratory, Scientific Institute IRCCS Eugenio Medea, Bosisio Parini, Italy; Department of Information Engineering, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
| | - Alessandra Bertoldo
- Department of Information Engineering, University of Padua, Padua, Italy; University of Padua, Padova Neuroscience Center, Padua, Italy
| | - Paolo Brambilla
- Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milan, Milan, Italy; Department of Neurosciences and Mental Health, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy.
| | - Denis Peruzzo
- NeuroImaging Laboratory, Scientific Institute IRCCS Eugenio Medea, Bosisio Parini, Italy
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Coronado-Gutiérrez D, Eixarch E, Monterde E, Matas I, Traversi P, Gratacós E, Bonet-Carne E, Burgos-Artizzu XP. Automatic Deep Learning-Based Pipeline for Automatic Delineation and Measurement of Fetal Brain Structures in Routine Mid-Trimester Ultrasound Images. Fetal Diagn Ther 2023; 50:480-490. [PMID: 37573787 DOI: 10.1159/000533203] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2023] [Accepted: 07/11/2023] [Indexed: 08/15/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION The aim of this study was to develop a pipeline using state-of-the-art deep learning methods to automatically delineate and measure several of the most important brain structures in fetal brain ultrasound (US) images. METHODS The dataset was composed of 5,331 images of the fetal brain acquired during the routine mid-trimester US scan. Our proposed pipeline automatically performs the following three steps: brain plane classification (transventricular, transthalamic, or transcerebellar plane); brain structures delineation (9 different structures); and automatic measurement (from the structure delineations). The methods were trained on a subset of 4,331 images and each step was evaluated on the remaining 1,000 images. RESULTS Plane classification reached 98.6% average class accuracy. Brain structure delineation obtained an average pixel accuracy higher than 96% and a Jaccard index higher than 70%. Automatic measurements get an absolute error below 3.5% for the four standard head biometries (head circumference, biparietal diameter, occipitofrontal diameter, and cephalic index), 9% for transcerebellar diameter, 12% for cavum septi pellucidi ratio, and 26% for Sylvian fissure operculization degree. CONCLUSIONS The proposed pipeline shows the potential of deep learning methods to delineate fetal head and brain structures and obtain automatic measures of each anatomical standard plane acquired during routine fetal US examination.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Coronado-Gutiérrez
- BCNatal | Fetal Medicine Research Center (Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, University of Barcelona), Barcelona, Spain,
- Transmural Biotech S. L., Barcelona, Spain,
| | - Elisenda Eixarch
- BCNatal | Fetal Medicine Research Center (Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, University of Barcelona), Barcelona, Spain
- Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi I Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain
- Centre for Biomedical Research on Rare Diseases (CIBERER), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Elena Monterde
- BCNatal | Fetal Medicine Research Center (Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, University of Barcelona), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Isabel Matas
- BCNatal | Fetal Medicine Research Center (Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, University of Barcelona), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Paola Traversi
- BCNatal | Fetal Medicine Research Center (Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, University of Barcelona), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Eduard Gratacós
- BCNatal | Fetal Medicine Research Center (Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, University of Barcelona), Barcelona, Spain
- Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi I Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain
- Centre for Biomedical Research on Rare Diseases (CIBERER), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Elisenda Bonet-Carne
- BCNatal | Fetal Medicine Research Center (Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, University of Barcelona), Barcelona, Spain
- Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi I Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain
- Barcelona Tech, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Xavier P Burgos-Artizzu
- BCNatal | Fetal Medicine Research Center (Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, University of Barcelona), Barcelona, Spain
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15
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Tamayo JM, Osman HC, Schwartzer JJ, Pinkerton K, Ashwood P. Characterizing the Neuroimmune Environment of Offspring in a Novel Model of Maternal Allergic Asthma and Particulate Matter Exposure. Res Sq 2023:rs.3.rs-3140415. [PMID: 37503062 PMCID: PMC10371118 DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3140415/v1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/29/2023]
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by the presence of decreased social interactions and an increase in stereotyped and repetitive behaviors. Epidemiology studies suggest that cases of ASD are on the rise. Similarly, rates of asthma are increasing, and the presence of maternal asthma during pregnancy increases the likelihood of a child being later diagnosed with ASD. Particulate matter (PM), via air pollution, is an environmental factor known to worsen the symptoms of asthma, but also, PM has been associated with increased risk of neuropsychiatric disorders including ASD. Despite the links between asthma and PM with neuropsychiatric disorders, there is a lack of laboratory models investigating combined prenatal exposure to asthma and PM on offspring neurodevelopment. Thus, we developed a novel mouse model that combines exposure to maternal allergic asthma (MAA) and ultrafine iron-soot (UIS), a common component of PM. In the current study, female BALB/c mice were primed for allergic asthma with ovalbumin (OVA) prior to pregnancy. Following mating and beginning on gestational day 2 (GD2), dams were exposed to either aerosolized OVA or phosphate buffered saline (PBS) for 1 hour. Following the 1-hour exposure, pregnant females were then exposed to UIS or clean air for 4 hours. Offspring brains were collected at postnatal days (P)15 and (P)35. Cortices and hippocampal regions were then isolated and assessed for changes in cytokines using a Luminex bead-based multiplex assay. Analyses identified changes in many cytokines across treatment groups at both timepoints in the cortex, including interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), IL-2, IL-13, and IL-17, which remained elevated from P15 to P35 in all treatment conditions compared to controls. In the hippocampus at P15, elevations in cytokines were also identified across the treatment groups, namely interferon gamma (IFNγ) and IL-7. The combination of MAA and UIS exposure (MAA-UIS) during pregnancy resulted in an increase in microglia density in the hippocampus of offspring, as identified by IBA-1 staining. Together, these data indicate that exposure to MAA, UIS, and MAA-UIS result in changes in the neuroimmune environment of offspring that persist into adulthood.
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Ciceri T, Squarcina L, Pigoni A, Ferro A, Montano F, Bertoldo A, Persico N, Boito S, Triulzi FM, Conte G, Brambilla P, Peruzzo D. Geometric Reliability of Super-Resolution Reconstructed Images from Clinical Fetal MRI in the Second Trimester. Neuroinformatics 2023; 21:549-563. [PMID: 37284977 PMCID: PMC10406722 DOI: 10.1007/s12021-023-09635-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/20/2023] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Fetal Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is an important noninvasive diagnostic tool to characterize the central nervous system (CNS) development, significantly contributing to pregnancy management. In clinical practice, fetal MRI of the brain includes the acquisition of fast anatomical sequences over different planes on which several biometric measurements are manually extracted. Recently, modern toolkits use the acquired two-dimensional (2D) images to reconstruct a Super-Resolution (SR) isotropic volume of the brain, enabling three-dimensional (3D) analysis of the fetal CNS.We analyzed 17 fetal MR exams performed in the second trimester, including orthogonal T2-weighted (T2w) Turbo Spin Echo (TSE) and balanced Fast Field Echo (b-FFE) sequences. For each subject and type of sequence, three distinct high-resolution volumes were reconstructed via NiftyMIC, MIALSRTK, and SVRTK toolkits. Fifteen biometric measurements were assessed both on the acquired 2D images and SR reconstructed volumes, and compared using Passing-Bablok regression, Bland-Altman plot analysis, and statistical tests.Results indicate that NiftyMIC and MIALSRTK provide reliable SR reconstructed volumes, suitable for biometric assessments. NiftyMIC also improves the operator intraclass correlation coefficient on the quantitative biometric measures with respect to the acquired 2D images. In addition, TSE sequences lead to more robust fetal brain reconstructions against intensity artifacts compared to b-FFE sequences, despite the latter exhibiting more defined anatomical details.Our findings strengthen the adoption of automatic toolkits for fetal brain reconstructions to perform biometry evaluations of fetal brain development over common clinical MR at an early pregnancy stage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tommaso Ciceri
- NeuroImaging Laboratory, Scientific Institute IRCCS Eugenio Medea, Bosisio Parini, Italy
- Department of Information Engineering, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
| | - Letizia Squarcina
- Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | - Alessandro Pigoni
- Social and Affective Neuroscience Group, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Lucca, Italy
- Department of Neurosciences and Mental Health, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy
| | - Adele Ferro
- Department of Neurosciences and Mental Health, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy
| | - Florian Montano
- NeuroImaging Laboratory, Scientific Institute IRCCS Eugenio Medea, Bosisio Parini, Italy
| | - Alessandra Bertoldo
- Department of Information Engineering, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
- Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
| | - Nicola Persico
- Department of Woman, Child and Newborn, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy
| | - Simona Boito
- Department of Woman, Child and Newborn, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy
| | - Fabio Maria Triulzi
- Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
- Department of Services and Preventive Medicine, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy
| | - Giorgio Conte
- Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
- Department of Services and Preventive Medicine, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy
| | - Paolo Brambilla
- Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
- Department of Neurosciences and Mental Health, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy.
| | - Denis Peruzzo
- NeuroImaging Laboratory, Scientific Institute IRCCS Eugenio Medea, Bosisio Parini, Italy
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Larson AC, Sridharan A, Moon JK, Agarwal D, Chang J, Wallace KD, Forsberg F, Didier RA. Contrast-enhanced subharmonic aided pressure estimation for assessment of intracranial pressure in vivo. Pediatr Radiol 2023; 53:1640-1647. [PMID: 37062765 DOI: 10.1007/s00247-023-05637-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2022] [Revised: 02/19/2023] [Accepted: 02/20/2023] [Indexed: 04/18/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring in children currently requires invasive techniques. Subharmonic aided pressure estimation (SHAPE) uses contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) to measure intravascular and interstitial pressure, but utility in ICP measurements has yet to be explored. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to investigate SHAPE as a novel tool for noninvasive ICP measurements in fetal lambs. MATERIALS AND METHODS Eighteen fetal lambs at 107-139 days gestational age (term = 145 days) underwent subdural ICP catheter placement. The brain was imaged in the coronal plane in CEUS mode optimized for SHAPE, while infusing an US contrast agent into the fetal circulation. After SHAPE calibration, saline was infused via the subdural catheter to increase ICP. Five-second SHAPE cine clips were obtained at various ICPs. Subharmonic intensity values of the whole brain and thalami were correlated with ICP values using mixed effects linear regression analyses and the strength of the relationship was evaluated by Spearman's rank-order correlation. RESULTS Forty-nine experiments produced 723 datapoints, including SHAPE intensity values and mean ICP measurements. There was a statistically significant inverse relationship between SHAPE intensity values and ICP measurements in the whole brain and thalami (median rho value - 0.58 and - 0.56, respectively). CONCLUSION SHAPE intensity values of the brain demonstrate an inverse and statistically significant correlation with in vivo ICP measurements in an animal model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abby C Larson
- Department of Surgery, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Anush Sridharan
- Department of Radiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 3401 Civic Center Blvd, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - James K Moon
- Department of Surgery, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Divyansh Agarwal
- Perelmen School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Jonathan Chang
- Department of Surgery, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | | | - Flemming Forsberg
- Department of Radiology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Ryne A Didier
- Department of Surgery, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
- Department of Radiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 3401 Civic Center Blvd, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.
- Perelmen School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
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Vahedifard F, Adepoju JO, Supanich M, Ai HA, Liu X, Kocak M, Marathu KK, Byrd SE. Review of deep learning and artificial intelligence models in fetal brain magnetic resonance imaging. World J Clin Cases 2023; 11:3725-3735. [PMID: 37383127 PMCID: PMC10294149 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i16.3725] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2023] [Revised: 01/30/2023] [Accepted: 05/06/2023] [Indexed: 06/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Central nervous system abnormalities in fetuses are fairly common, happening in 0.1% to 0.2% of live births and in 3% to 6% of stillbirths. So initial detection and categorization of fetal Brain abnormalities are critical. Manually detecting and segmenting fetal brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) could be time-consuming, and susceptible to interpreter experience. Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and machine learning approaches have a high potential for assisting in the early detection of these problems, improving the diagnosis process and follow-up procedures. The use of AI and machine learning techniques in fetal brain MRI was the subject of this narrative review paper. Using AI, anatomic fetal brain MRI processing has investigated models to predict specific landmarks and segmentation automatically. All gestation age weeks (17-38 wk) and different AI models (mainly Convolutional Neural Network and U-Net) have been used. Some models' accuracy achieved 95% and more. AI could help preprocess and post-process fetal images and reconstruct images. Also, AI can be used for gestational age prediction (with one-week accuracy), fetal brain extraction, fetal brain segmentation, and placenta detection. Some fetal brain linear measurements, such as Cerebral and Bone Biparietal Diameter, have been suggested. Classification of brain pathology was studied using diagonal quadratic discriminates analysis, K-nearest neighbor, random forest, naive Bayes, and radial basis function neural network classifiers. Deep learning methods will become more powerful as more large-scale, labeled datasets become available. Having shared fetal brain MRI datasets is crucial because there aren not many fetal brain pictures available. Also, physicians should be aware of AI's function in fetal brain MRI, particularly neuroradiologists, general radiologists, and perinatologists.
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Affiliation(s)
- Farzan Vahedifard
- Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Rush Medical College, Chicago, IL 606012, United States
| | - Jubril O Adepoju
- Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Rush Medical College, Chicago, IL 606012, United States
| | - Mark Supanich
- Division for Diagnostic Medical Physics, Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL 606012, United States
| | - Hua Asher Ai
- Division for Diagnostic Medical Physics, Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL 606012, United States
| | - Xuchu Liu
- Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Rush Medical College, Chicago, IL 606012, United States
| | - Mehmet Kocak
- Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Rush Medical College, Chicago, IL 606012, United States
| | - Kranthi K Marathu
- Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Rush Medical College, Chicago, IL 606012, United States
| | - Sharon E Byrd
- Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Rush Medical College, Chicago, IL 606012, United States
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Falahi S, Abdoli A, Kenarkoohi A. Maternal COVID-19 infection and the fetus: Immunological and neurological perspectives. New Microbes New Infect 2023; 53:101135. [PMID: 37143853 PMCID: PMC10133021 DOI: 10.1016/j.nmni.2023.101135] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2022] [Revised: 04/02/2023] [Accepted: 04/18/2023] [Indexed: 05/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Immunoneuropsychiatry is an emerging field about the interaction between the immune and nervous systems. Infection and infection-related inflammation (in addition to genetics and environmental factors) can act as the etiopathogenesis of neuropsychiatric disorders (NPDs). Exposure to COVID-19 in utero may be a risk factor for developing NPDs in offspring in the future. Maternal immune activation (MIA) and subsequent inflammation can affect fetal brain development. Inflammatory mediators, cytokines, and autoantibodies can pass through the placenta and the compromised blood-brain barrier after MIA, leading to neuroinflammation. Neuroinflammation also affects multiple neurobiological pathways; for example, it decreases the production of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Fetal sex may affect the mother's immune response. Pregnant women with male fetuses have been reported to have decreased maternal and placental humoral responses. This suggests that in pregnancies with a male fetus, fewer antibodies may be transferred to the fetus and contribute to males' increased susceptibility/vulnerability to infectious diseases compared to female infants. Here, we want to discuss maternal COVID-19 infection and its consequences for the fetus, particularly the neurological outcomes and the interaction between fetal sex and possible changes in maternal immune responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shahab Falahi
- Zoonotic Diseases Research Center, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
| | - Amir Abdoli
- Zoonoses Research Center, Jahrom University of Medical Sciences, Jahrom, Iran
| | - Azra Kenarkoohi
- Zoonotic Diseases Research Center, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
- Department of Laboratory Sciences, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
- Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
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20
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Chao CR, Perez Yordan J, Roberts M, Ma X, Holbrook B, Rayburn W, Bakhireva LN. Effects of medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) on fetal brain and cranial measurements. Neurotoxicol Teratol 2023; 97:107177. [PMID: 37084853 DOI: 10.1016/j.ntt.2023.107177] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2023] [Revised: 04/11/2023] [Accepted: 04/17/2023] [Indexed: 04/23/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The use and misuse of opioids, as well as opioid use disorder (OUD) have increased remarkably among reproductive-aged and pregnant women. As many as 25% of pregnant women who report non-medical opioid use in the past month also report concurrent alcohol use. While teratogenic effects of alcohol are well established, there are limited studies evaluating fetal intracranial effects associated with medications for OUD (MOUD) and concurrent use of MOUD and alcohol during pregnancy. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of MOUD, with and without concomitant alcohol use, on fetal intracranial measurements. The type of maternal MOUD therapy (methadone vs. buprenorphine) was also examined. METHODS This study was a secondary analysis of a prospective cohort study among participants (n = 196) assigned into three groups (MOUD [n = 94], MOUD+Alcohol [n = 47], and unexposed controls [n = 55]). Co-exposure with either methamphetamines or cocaine were exclusionary criteria; other co-exposures were carefully characterized with prospective repeated self-report measures and biomarkers. Fetal ultrasound measurements at 18-22 weeks (2nd trimester) and 28-32 weeks (early 3rd trimester) were compared among study groups. In addition to standard morphometrics, we performed specialized intracranial measurements of caval-calvarial distance (CCD), frontal lobe width (FLW), frontal lobe length (FLL), and fronto-thalamic distance (FTD). RESULTS Brain and cranial measurements between MOUD, with or without alcohol co-exposure, and unexposed controls were generally not significantly different in multivariate analyses. Subjects in the MOUD groups had earlier gestational age at delivery and lower birth weight and birth weight percentile compared to unexposed controls with differences driven primarily by the methadone subgroup. Significant differences in standard and specialized intracranial indices at both second and third trimester as well as differences in the change of HC percentile over time were observed in the methadone subgroup compared to controls, while no differences between buprenorphine subgroup and controls were observed for any measures. CONCLUSION Patients receiving methadone therapy might require closer monitoring during pregnancy; however, detailed imaging of the fetal brain other than the standard measurements might not be warranted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Conrad R Chao
- Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM, United States of America
| | - Jose Perez Yordan
- Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM, United States of America
| | - Melissa Roberts
- College of Pharmacy Substance Use Research and Education Center, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM, United States of America
| | - Xingya Ma
- College of Pharmacy Substance Use Research and Education Center, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM, United States of America
| | - Bradley Holbrook
- Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM, United States of America; Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Community Medical Center, Missoula, MT, United States of America
| | - William Rayburn
- Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM, United States of America
| | - Ludmila N Bakhireva
- College of Pharmacy Substance Use Research and Education Center, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM, United States of America.
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21
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Karimi D, Rollins CK, Velasco-Annis C, Ouaalam A, Gholipour A. Learning to segment fetal brain tissue from noisy annotations. Med Image Anal 2023; 85:102731. [PMID: 36608414 PMCID: PMC9974964 DOI: 10.1016/j.media.2022.102731] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2022] [Revised: 11/17/2022] [Accepted: 12/23/2022] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
Automatic fetal brain tissue segmentation can enhance the quantitative assessment of brain development at this critical stage. Deep learning methods represent the state of the art in medical image segmentation and have also achieved impressive results in brain segmentation. However, effective training of a deep learning model to perform this task requires a large number of training images to represent the rapid development of the transient fetal brain structures. On the other hand, manual multi-label segmentation of a large number of 3D images is prohibitive. To address this challenge, we segmented 272 training images, covering 19-39 gestational weeks, using an automatic multi-atlas segmentation strategy based on deformable registration and probabilistic atlas fusion, and manually corrected large errors in those segmentations. Since this process generated a large training dataset with noisy segmentations, we developed a novel label smoothing procedure and a loss function to train a deep learning model with smoothed noisy segmentations. Our proposed methods properly account for the uncertainty in tissue boundaries. We evaluated our method on 23 manually-segmented test images of a separate set of fetuses. Results show that our method achieves an average Dice similarity coefficient of 0.893 and 0.916 for the transient structures of younger and older fetuses, respectively. Our method generated results that were significantly more accurate than several state-of-the-art methods including nnU-Net that achieved the closest results to our method. Our trained model can serve as a valuable tool to enhance the accuracy and reproducibility of fetal brain analysis in MRI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Davood Karimi
- Department of Radiology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
| | - Caitlin K Rollins
- Department of Neurology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Clemente Velasco-Annis
- Department of Radiology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Abdelhakim Ouaalam
- Department of Radiology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Ali Gholipour
- Department of Radiology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
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22
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Yun HJ, Lee HJ, Lee JY, Tarui T, Rollins CK, Ortinau CM, Feldman HA, Grant PE, Im K. Quantification of sulcal emergence timing and its variability in early fetal life: Hemispheric asymmetry and sex difference. Neuroimage 2022; 263:119629. [PMID: 36115591 PMCID: PMC10011016 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119629] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2022] [Revised: 08/07/2022] [Accepted: 09/12/2022] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Human fetal brains show regionally different temporal patterns of sulcal emergence following a regular timeline, which may be associated with spatiotemporal patterns of gene expression among cortical regions. This study aims to quantify the timing of sulcal emergence and its temporal variability across typically developing fetuses by fitting a logistic curve to presence or absence of sulcus. We found that the sulcal emergence started from the central to the temporo-parieto-occipital lobes and frontal lobe, and the temporal variability of emergence in most of the sulci was similar between 1 and 2 weeks. Small variability (< 1 week) was found in the left central and postcentral sulci and larger variability (>2 weeks) was shown in the bilateral occipitotemporal and left superior temporal sulci. The temporal variability showed a positive correlation with the emergence timing that may be associated with differential contributions between genetic and environmental factors. Our statistical analysis revealed that the right superior temporal sulcus emerged earlier than the left. Female fetuses showed a trend of earlier sulcal emergence in the right superior temporal sulcus, lower temporal variability in the right intraparietal sulcus, and higher variability in the right precentral sulcus compared to male fetuses. Our quantitative and statistical approach quantified the temporal patterns of sulcal emergence in detail that can be a reference for assessing the normality of developing fetal gyrification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyuk Jin Yun
- Fetal Neonatal Neuroimaging and Developmental Science Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115, United States; Division of Newborn Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, United States
| | - Hyun Ju Lee
- Department of Pediatrics, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul 04763, Korea (the Republic of)
| | - Joo Young Lee
- Department of Pediatrics, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul 04763, Korea (the Republic of)
| | - Tomo Tarui
- Mother Infant Research Institute, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA 02115, United States
| | - Caitlin K Rollins
- Department of Neurology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, United States
| | - Cynthia M Ortinau
- Department of Pediatrics, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, United States
| | - Henry A Feldman
- Division of Newborn Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, United States; Institutional Centers for Clinical and Translational Research, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, United States
| | - P Ellen Grant
- Fetal Neonatal Neuroimaging and Developmental Science Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115, United States; Division of Newborn Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, United States; Department of Radiology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, United States
| | - Kiho Im
- Fetal Neonatal Neuroimaging and Developmental Science Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115, United States; Division of Newborn Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, United States.
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23
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Strawn M, Behura SK. Epigenetic regulation of fetal brain development in pig. Gene 2022; 844:146823. [PMID: 35988784 DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2022.146823] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2022] [Revised: 07/27/2022] [Accepted: 08/15/2022] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
How fetal brain development is regulated at the molecular level is not well understood. Due to ethical challenges associated with research on the human fetus, large animals particularly pigs are increasingly used to study development and disorders of fetal brain. The pig fetal brain grows rapidly during the last ∼ 50 days before birth which is around day 60 (d60) of pig gestation. But what regulates the onset of accelerated growth of the brain is unknown. The current study tests the hypothesis that epigenetic alteration around d60 is involved in the onset of rapid growth of fetal brain of pig. To test this hypothesis, DNA methylation changes of fetal brain was assessed in a genome-wide manner by Enzymatic Methyl-seq (EM-seq) during two gestational periods (GP): d45 vs. d60 (GP1) and d60 vs. d90 (GP2). The cytosine-guanine (CpG) methylation data was analyzed in an integrative manner with the RNA-seq data generated from the same brain samples from our earlier study. A neural network based modeling approach was implemented to learn changes in methylation patterns of the differentially expressed genes, and then predict methylations of the brain in a genome-wide manner during rapid growth. This approach identified specific methylations that changed in a mutually informative manner during rapid growth of the fetal brain. These methylations were significantly overrepresented in specific genic as well as intergenic features including CpG islands, introns, and untranslated regions. In addition, sex-bias methylations of known single nucleotide polymorphic sites were also identified in the fetal brain ide during rapid growth.
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Kang J, Koehler RC, Graham EM, Boctor EM. Photoacoustic assessment of the fetal brain and placenta as a method of non-invasive antepartum and intrapartum monitoring. Exp Neurol 2022; 347:113898. [PMID: 34662542 PMCID: PMC8756814 DOI: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2021.113898] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2021] [Revised: 10/06/2021] [Accepted: 10/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
A noninvasive monitor for concurrent evaluation of placental and fetal sagittal sinus sO 2 for both antepartum surveillance at the late 2nd and 3rd trimesters and intrapartum monitoring would be a great advantage over current methods. A PA fetal brain and placental monitor has potential value to rapidly identify the fetus at risk for developing hypoxia and ischemia of a sufficient degree that brain injury or death may develop, which may be prevented by intervention with delivery and other follow-up treatments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeeun Kang
- Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics, Whiting School of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States of America; Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States of America
| | - Raymond C Koehler
- Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States of America
| | - Ernest M Graham
- Department of Gyn-Ob, Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States of America; Neuroscience Intensive Care Nursery Program, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; Baltimore, MD, United States of America.
| | - Emad M Boctor
- Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics, Whiting School of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States of America; Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States of America
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Hill RA. Defining the absolute risk of maternal infections on offspring neurodevelopmental outcomes: How to ensure your model is not lost in translation. Brain Behav Immun 2021; 97:6-7. [PMID: 34298095 PMCID: PMC9758309 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2021.07.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2021] [Accepted: 07/04/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Rachel A. Hill
- Corresponding author at: Behavioural Neuroscience Laboratory, Monash University, Monash Medical Centre, Clayton, VIC 3168, Australia
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Pei Y, Chen L, Zhao F, Wu Z, Zhong T, Wang Y, Chen C, Wang L, Zhang H, Wang L, Li G. Learning Spatiotemporal Probabilistic Atlas of Fetal Brains with Anatomically Constrained Registration Network. Med Image Comput Comput Assist Interv 2021; 12907:239-248. [PMID: 35128549 PMCID: PMC8816449 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-87234-2_23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/20/2023]
Abstract
Brain atlases are of fundamental importance for analyzing the dynamic neurodevelopment in fetal brain studies. Since the brain size, shape, and anatomical structures change rapidly during the prenatal period, it is essential to construct a spatiotemporal (4D) atlas equipped with tissue probability maps, which can preserve sharper early brain folding patterns for accurately characterizing dynamic changes in fetal brains and provide tissue prior informations for related tasks, e.g., segmentation, registration, and parcellation. In this work, we propose a novel unsupervised age-conditional learning framework to build temporally continuous fetal brain atlases by incorporating tissue segmentation maps, which outperforms previous traditional atlas construction methods in three aspects. First, our framework enables learning age-conditional deformable templates by leveraging the entire collection. Second, we leverage reliable brain tissue segmentation maps in addition to the low-contrast noisy intensity images to enhance the alignment of individual images. Third, a novel loss function is designed to enforce the similarity between the learned tissue probability map on the atlas and each subject tissue segmentation map after registration, thereby providing extra anatomical consistency supervision for atlas building. Our 4D temporally-continuous fetal brain atlases are constructed based on 82 healthy fetuses from 22 to 32 gestational weeks. Compared with the atlases built by the state-of-the-art algorithms, our atlases preserve more structural details and sharper folding patterns. Together with the learned tissue probability maps, our 4D fetal atlases provide a valuable reference for spatial normalization and analysis of fetal brain development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuchen Pei
- Institute of Image Processing and Pattern Recognition, Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
- Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
| | - Liangjun Chen
- Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
| | - Fenqiang Zhao
- Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
| | - Zhengwang Wu
- Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
| | - Tao Zhong
- Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
| | - Ya Wang
- Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
| | - Changan Chen
- Department of Radiology, Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Li Wang
- Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
| | - He Zhang
- Department of Radiology, Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Lisheng Wang
- Institute of Image Processing and Pattern Recognition, Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
| | - Gang Li
- Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
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Sepulveda F, Sepulveda W. Prenatal intracranial hypotension syndrome: new insights into the mechanisms of fenestration of septi pellucidi and ventriculomegaly in fetuses with open spinal dysraphism. J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med 2021; 35:6981-6987. [PMID: 34074204 DOI: 10.1080/14767058.2021.1932808] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To study the prevalence of abnormalities of the septi pellucidi (SP) in a cohort of fetuses with open spinal dysraphism (OSD) and to determine whether this condition is secondary to obstructive ventriculomegaly and, therefore, part of the natural history of prenatal intracranial hypotension (PICH) syndrome. METHODS Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies from fetuses with OSD were analyzed. The SP were assessed using axial and coronal T2-weighted images of the fetal brain and classified as intact, partially absent, or completely absent. Additionally, the correlation between the presence or absence of the SP and the size of the lateral ventricles, degree of cerebellar tonsillar herniation, collapse of the fourth ventricle, and interpeduncular angle was investigated. RESULTS A total of 32 fetuses with OSD were studied. Mean gestational age at the time of the fetal MRI was 25.5 ± 3.9 weeks (range, 19-35) and mean ventricular size was 16.2 ± 4.2 mm (range, 8-26). Twenty-three (71.9%) fetuses had cerebellar tonsillar herniation. The IPA was completely collapsed in 23 cases (71.9%), reduced in seven (21.9%), and unreadable in two (6.3%). Twenty (62.5%) fetuses presented with intact SP, 10 (31.3%) with partially absent SP (incomplete fenestration), and two (6.3%) with completely absent SP (complete fenestration). Fenestration of the SP correlated significantly with the degree of ventriculomegaly (Pearson's correlation coefficient =0.459; p = .01). However, there was no correlation with the IPA, collapse of the fourth ventricle, and cerebellar tonsillar herniation. CONCLUSIONS More than one-third of the fetuses with OSD had fenestration of the SP. The most probable etiology is increased intraventricular pressure leading to local necrosis of the SP. As fenestration of the SP is a secondary event associated with PICH syndrome, this condition should not be considered a contraindication for intrauterine repair of the spinal defect. Instead, it should be seen as an indicator of the severity of the intraventricular pressure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francisco Sepulveda
- Department of Neuroradiology, Institute of Neurosurgery 'Dr. Asenjo', National Health Service, Santiago, Chile.,FETALMED - Maternal-Fetal Diagnostic Center, Fetal Imaging Unit, Santiago, Chile
| | - Waldo Sepulveda
- FETALMED - Maternal-Fetal Diagnostic Center, Fetal Imaging Unit, Santiago, Chile
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Malinger G, Hoffmann C, Achiron R, Berkenstadt M. Prenatal Diagnosis of Snijders Blok-Campeau Syndrome in a Fetus with Macrocephaly. Fetal Diagn Ther 2021; 48:407-410. [PMID: 34000720 DOI: 10.1159/000514326] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2020] [Accepted: 01/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
We present the prenatal imaging and whole exomics sequencing with the newly described Snijders Blok-Campeau macrocephaly syndrome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gustavo Malinger
- Division of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology, Lis Maternity Hospital, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Chen Hoffmann
- Department of Diagnostic Imaging, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Hashomer, Israel
| | - Reuven Achiron
- Prenatal Diagnostic Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Hashomer, Israel
| | - Michal Berkenstadt
- The Danek Gertner Institute of Human Genetics, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Hashomer, Israel
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Ye X, Shin BC, Baldauf C, Ganguly A, Ghosh S, Devaskar SU. Developing Brain Glucose Transporters, Serotonin, Serotonin Transporter, and Oxytocin Receptor Expression in Response to Early-Life Hypocaloric and Hypercaloric Dietary, and Air Pollutant Exposures. Dev Neurosci 2021; 43:27-42. [PMID: 33774619 DOI: 10.1159/000514709] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2020] [Accepted: 01/20/2021] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Perturbed maternal diet and prenatal exposure to air pollution (AP) affect the fetal brain, predisposing to postnatal neurobehavioral disorders. Glucose transporters (GLUTs) are key in fueling neurotransmission; deficiency of the neuronal isoform GLUT3 culminates in autism spectrum disorders. Along with the different neurotransmitters, serotonin (5-HT) and oxytocin (OXT) are critical for the development of neural connectivity. Serotonin transporter (SERT) modulates synaptic 5-HT levels, while the OXT receptor (OXTR) mediates OXT action. We hypothesized that perturbed brain GLUT1/GLUT3 regulated 5-HT-SERT imbalance, which serves as a contributing factor to postnatal neuropsychiatric phenotypes, with OXT/OXTR providing a counterbalance. Employing maternal diet restriction (intrauterine growth restriction [IUGR]), high-fat (HF) dietary modifications, and prenatal exposure to simulated AP, fetal (E19) murine brain 5-HT was assessed by ELISA with SERT and OXTR being localized by immunohistochemistry and measured by quantitative Western blot analysis. IUGR with lower head weights led to a 48% reduction in male and female fetal brain GLUT3 with no change in GLUT1, when compared to age- and sex-matched controls, with no significant change in OXTR. In addition, a ∼50% (p = 0.005) decrease in 5-HT and SERT concentrations was displayed in fetal IUGR brains. In contrast, despite emergence of microcephaly, exposure to a maternal HF diet or AP caused no significant changes. We conclude that in the IUGR during fetal brain development, reduced GLUT3 is associated with an imbalanced 5-HT-SERT axis. We speculate that these early changes may set the stage for altering the 5HT-SERT neural axis with postnatal emergence of associated neurodevelopmental disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xin Ye
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology & Developmental Biology and the Neonatal Research Center of the UCLA Children's Discovery & Innovation Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Bo-Chul Shin
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology & Developmental Biology and the Neonatal Research Center of the UCLA Children's Discovery & Innovation Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Claire Baldauf
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology & Developmental Biology and the Neonatal Research Center of the UCLA Children's Discovery & Innovation Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Amit Ganguly
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology & Developmental Biology and the Neonatal Research Center of the UCLA Children's Discovery & Innovation Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Shubhamoy Ghosh
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology & Developmental Biology and the Neonatal Research Center of the UCLA Children's Discovery & Innovation Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Sherin U Devaskar
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology & Developmental Biology and the Neonatal Research Center of the UCLA Children's Discovery & Innovation Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA
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Limonta D, Branton W, Wong CP, Saito L, Power C, Hobman TC. Use of Primary Human Fetal Astrocytes and Tissue Explants as Ex Vivo Models to Study Zika Virus Infection of the Developing Brain. Methods Mol Biol 2020; 2142:251-9. [PMID: 32367372 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0581-3_19] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/08/2023]
Abstract
Zika virus (ZIKV) infection during pregnancy can result in congenital Zika syndrome which is characterized by microcephaly and other neurodevelopmental disorders. In this chapter, we describe methods to model ex vivo ZIKV infection in astrocytes and tissue explants from human fetal brain. These cell- and tissue-based platforms have been useful to elucidate mechanisms of ZIKV persistence and might lead to important clues about virus-induced neuropathogenesis. In addition, these ex vivo model systems allow researchers to conduct drug discovery and development experiments in more representative settings of the developing human brain.
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Wang Z, Zhang C, Huang F, Liu X, Wang Z, Yan B. Breakthrough of ZrO 2 nanoparticles into fetal brains depends on developmental stage of maternal placental barrier and fetal blood-brain-barrier. J Hazard Mater 2021; 402:123563. [PMID: 32745876 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.123563] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2020] [Revised: 07/02/2020] [Accepted: 07/22/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Ingestion of nanoparticles may cause various damages to human body. However, how such ingestion by pregnant mother influences fetal development is not known because, presumably, ingested nanoparticles have to cross multiple biological barriers (such as intestinal and placental) to reach fetus. To answer this crucial question, here we investigated how a relatively biocompatible zirconia nanoparticles (ZrO2 NPs, 16 nm) were translocated to fetal brains in three exposure models of pregnant mice: Model 1, oral exposure of nanoparticles before maternal blood-placental barrier (BPB) was fully developed; Model 2, exposures after BPB was developed, but before fetal blood-brain-barrier (BBB) was fully developed; Model 3, exposures after both maternal BPB and fetal BBB were fully developed. Our experimental results showed that translocation of ZrO2 NPs into fetal brains was 55 % higher in Model 2 and 96 % higher in Model 1 compared with that in Model 3 after nanoparticles (50 mg/kg) were orally exposed to pregnant mice. Therefore, nanoparticles are able to cross multiple biological barriers and nanotoxicity to fetus is highly dependent on stages of pregnancy and fetal development or the maturity of multiple biological barriers. Oral exposures to nanoparticles during pregnancy are dangerous to fetal brain development, especially in early pregnancy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zengjin Wang
- Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, 250012, PR China
| | - Congcong Zhang
- Institute of Environmental Research at Greater Bay, Key Laboratory for Water Quality and Conservation of the Pearl River Delta, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China
| | - Fengyan Huang
- Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, 250012, PR China
| | - Xiaojing Liu
- Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, 250012, PR China
| | - Zhiping Wang
- Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, 250012, PR China.
| | - Bing Yan
- Institute of Environmental Research at Greater Bay, Key Laboratory for Water Quality and Conservation of the Pearl River Delta, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China; School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Qingdao, 266237, PR China.
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Shimizu R, Ishihara K, Kawashita E, Sago H, Yamakawa K, Mizutani KI, Akiba S. Decrease in the T-box1 gene expression in embryonic brain and adult hippocampus of down syndrome mouse models. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2021; 535:87-92. [PMID: 33348080 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2020.12.026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2020] [Accepted: 12/09/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Down syndrome (DS, Trisomy 21) is the most common genetic cause of delayed fetal brain development and postnatal intellectual disability. Although delayed fetal brain development might be involved in intellectual disability, no evidence of an association between these abnormal phenotypes has been shown. To identify molecules differentially expressed in both the prenatal forebrain and adult hippocampus of Ts1Cje mice, a mouse model of DS, we employed a transcriptomic analysis. In the present study, we conducted transcriptomic profiling of the hippocampus of adult Ts1Cje mice and compared the results with the previously obtained transcriptomic profile of the prenatal forebrain at embryonic day 14.5. Results showed that the Tbx1 mRNA expression was decreased at both life stages. In addition, the decreased expression of Tbx1 mRNA was confirmed in other DS mouse models, Dp(16)1Yey/+ and Ts1Rhr mice, which carry longer and shorter trisomic regions, respectively. Taken together, these findings suggest that Tbx1 may link the delayed fetal brain development and intellectual disability in DS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryohei Shimizu
- Department of Pathological Biochemistry, Division of Pathological Sciences, Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, Kyoto, 607-8414, Japan
| | - Keiichi Ishihara
- Department of Pathological Biochemistry, Division of Pathological Sciences, Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, Kyoto, 607-8414, Japan.
| | - Eri Kawashita
- Department of Pathological Biochemistry, Division of Pathological Sciences, Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, Kyoto, 607-8414, Japan
| | - Haruhiko Sago
- Center for Maternal-Fetal, Neonatal and Reproductive Medicine, National Center for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, 157-8535, Japan
| | - Kazuhiro Yamakawa
- Department of Neurodevelopmental Disorder Genetics, Institute of Brain Sciences, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Aichi, 467-8601, Japan
| | - Ken-Ichi Mizutani
- Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kobe Gakuin University, Kobe, 650-8586, Japan
| | - Satoshi Akiba
- Department of Pathological Biochemistry, Division of Pathological Sciences, Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, Kyoto, 607-8414, Japan
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Kam KL, Parrack P, Banworth M, Aravindan S, Li G, Fung KM. Use of Immunohistochemistry to Determine Expression of Rab5 Subfamily of GTPases in Mature and Developmental Brains. Methods Mol Biol 2021; 2293:265-271. [PMID: 34453724 PMCID: PMC8917831 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1346-7_19] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Rab GTPases are essentially molecular switches. They serve as master regulators in intracellular membrane trafficking from the formation and transport of vesicles at the originating organelle to its fusion to the membrane at the target organelle. Their functions are diversified and each has their specific subcellular location. Their expression may vary significantly in the same cell when the level of protein production is significantly different in different physiologic status. One of the best examples is the transition from fetal to mature status of cells. Expression and localization of Rab GTPases in mature and developing brains have not been well studied. Immunohistochemistry is an efficient way in the detection, semiquantitation, and localization of Rab GTPases in tissue sections. It is inexpensive and fast which allow efficient mass screening of many sections. In this chapter, we describe the immunohistochemical assay protocol for analyzing several Rab protein expressions of the Rab5 subfamily, including Rab5, Rab17, Rab22, and Rab31, in developmental (fetal) and mature human brains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kwok-Ling Kam
- Department of Pathology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK, USA
| | - Paige Parrack
- Department of Pathology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK, USA
| | - Marcellus Banworth
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK, USA
| | - Sheeja Aravindan
- Tissue Pathology Shared Resource, Stephenson Cancer Center, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK, USA
| | - Guangpu Li
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Peggy and Charles Stephenson Cancer Center, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK, USA.
| | - Kar-Ming Fung
- Department of Pathology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK, USA.
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Darbinian N, Darbinyan A, Merabova N, Bajwa A, Tatevosian G, Martirosyan D, Zhao H, Selzer ME, Goetzl L. Ethanol-mediated alterations in oligodendrocyte differentiation in the developing brain. Neurobiol Dis 2020; 148:105181. [PMID: 33189883 DOI: 10.1016/j.nbd.2020.105181] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2020] [Revised: 10/21/2020] [Accepted: 11/09/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Alterations of white matter integrity and subsequent white matter structural deficits are consistent findings in Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), but knowledge regarding the molecular mechanisms underlying these abnormalities is incomplete. Experimental rodent models of FAS have shown dysregulation of cytokine expression leading to apoptosis of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) and altered oligodendrocyte (OL) differentiation, but whether this is representative of human FAS pathogenesis has not been determined. METHODS Fetal brain tissue (12.2-21.4 weeks gestation) from subjects undergoing elective termination of pregnancy was collected according to an IRB-approved protocol. Ethanol (EtOH) exposure status was classified based on a detailed face-to-face questionnaire adapted from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Prenatal Alcohol and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and Stillbirth (PASS) study. Twenty EtOH-exposed fetuses were compared with 20 gestational age matched controls. Cytokine and OPC marker mRNA expression was quantified by Real-Time Polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Patterns of protein expression of OPC markers and active Capase-3 were studied by Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting (FACS). RESULTS EtOH exposure was associated with reduced markers of cell viability, OPC differentiation, and OL maturation, while early OL differentiation markers were unchanged or increased. Expression of mRNAs for proteins specific to more mature forms of OL lineage (platelet-derived growth factor α (PDGFRα) and myelin basic protein (MBP) was lower in the EtOH group than in controls. Expression of the multifunctional growth and differentiation-promoting growth factor IGF-1, which is essential for normal development, also was reduced. Reductions were not observed for markers of early stages of OL differentiation, including Nuclear transcription factor NK-2 homeobox locus 2 (Nkx2.2). Expression of mRNAs for the proinflammatory cytokine, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα), and several proinflammatory chemokines was higher in the EtOH group compared to controls, including: Growth regulated protein alpha/chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 1 (GRO-α/CXCL1), Interleukin 8/chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 8 (IL8/CXCL8), Chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 6/Granulocyte chemotactic protein 2 (CXCL16/GCP2), epithelial-derived neutrophil-activating protein 78/chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 5 (ENA-78/CXCL5), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1). EtOH exposure also was associated with an increase in the proportion of cells expressing markers of early stage OPCs, such as A2B5 and NG2. Finally, apoptosis (measured by caspase-3 activation) was increased substantially in the EtOH group compared to controls. CONCLUSION Prenatal EtOH exposure is associated with excessive OL apoptosis and/or delayed OL maturation in human fetal brain. This is accompanied by markedly dysregulated expression of several chemokines and cytokines, in a pattern predictive of increased OL cytotoxicity and reduced OL differentiation. These findings are consistent with findings in animal models of FAS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nune Darbinian
- Center for Neural Repair and Rehabilitation (Shriners Hospitals Pediatric Research Center), Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19140, United States of America.
| | - Armine Darbinyan
- Department of Pathology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, United States of America.
| | - Nana Merabova
- Center for Neural Repair and Rehabilitation (Shriners Hospitals Pediatric Research Center), Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19140, United States of America.
| | - Ahsun Bajwa
- Center for Neural Repair and Rehabilitation (Shriners Hospitals Pediatric Research Center), Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19140, United States of America.
| | - Gabriel Tatevosian
- Center for Neural Repair and Rehabilitation (Shriners Hospitals Pediatric Research Center), Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19140, United States of America.
| | - Diana Martirosyan
- Center for Neural Repair and Rehabilitation (Shriners Hospitals Pediatric Research Center), Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19140, United States of America.
| | - Huaqing Zhao
- Department of Clinical Sciences (Biostatistics and Epidemiology), Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19140, United States of America.
| | - Michael E Selzer
- Center for Neural Repair and Rehabilitation (Shriners Hospitals Pediatric Research Center), Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19140, United States of America.
| | - Laura Goetzl
- Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Texas, Houston, TX 77030, United States of America.
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Pei Y, Wang L, Zhao F, Zhong T, Liao L, Shen D, Li G. Anatomy-Guided Convolutional Neural Network for Motion Correction in Fetal Brain MRI. Mach Learn Med Imaging 2020; 12436:384-393. [PMID: 33644782 PMCID: PMC7912521 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-59861-7_39] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
Fetal Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is challenged by the fetal movements and maternal breathing. Although fast MRI sequences allow artifact free acquisition of individual 2D slices, motion commonly occurs in between slices acquisitions. Motion correction for each slice is thus very important for reconstruction of 3D fetal brain MRI, but is highly operator-dependent and time-consuming. Approaches based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have achieved encouraging performance on prediction of 3D motion parameters of arbitrarily oriented 2D slices, which, however, does not capitalize on important brain structural information. To address this problem, we propose a new multi-task learning framework to jointly learn the transformation parameters and tissue segmentation map of each slice, for providing brain anatomical information to guide the mapping from 2D slices to 3D volumetric space in a coarse to fine manner. In the coarse stage, the first network learns the features shared for both regression and segmentation tasks. In the refinement stage, to fully utilize the anatomical information, distance maps constructed based on the coarse segmentation are introduced to the second network. Finally, incorporation of the signed distance maps to guide the regression and segmentation together improves the performance in both tasks. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method achieves superior performance in reducing the motion prediction error and obtaining satisfactory tissue segmentation results simultaneously, compared with state-of-the-art methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuchen Pei
- Institute of Image Processing and Pattern Recognition, Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
- Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
| | - Lisheng Wang
- Institute of Image Processing and Pattern Recognition, Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
| | - Fenqiang Zhao
- Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
| | - Tao Zhong
- Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
| | - Lufan Liao
- Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
| | - Dinggang Shen
- Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
| | - Gang Li
- Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
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Hammerschlag AR, Byrne EM, Bartels M, Wray NR, Middeldorp CM; eQTLGen Consortium, BIOS Consortium. Refining Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder Genetic Loci by Integrating Summary Data From Genome-wide Association, Gene Expression, and DNA Methylation Studies. Biol Psychiatry 2020; 88:470-9. [PMID: 32684367 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2020.05.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2019] [Revised: 04/09/2020] [Accepted: 05/02/2020] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Recent genome-wide association studies (GWASs) identified the first genetic loci associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The next step is to use these results to increase our understanding of the biological mechanisms involved. Most of the identified variants likely influence gene regulation. The aim of the current study is to shed light on the mechanisms underlying the genetic signals and prioritize genes by integrating GWAS results with gene expression and DNA methylation (DNAm) levels. METHODS We applied summary-data-based Mendelian randomization to integrate ADHD and ASD GWAS data with fetal brain expression and methylation quantitative trait loci, given the early onset of these disorders. We also analyzed expression and methylation quantitative trait loci datasets of adult brain and blood, as these provide increased statistical power. We subsequently used summary-data-based Mendelian randomization to investigate if the same variant influences both DNAm and gene expression levels. RESULTS We identified multiple gene expression and DNAm levels in fetal brain at chromosomes 1 and 17 that were associated with ADHD and ASD, respectively, through pleiotropy at shared genetic variants. The analyses in brain and blood showed additional associated gene expression and DNAm levels at the same and additional loci, likely because of increased statistical power. Several of the associated genes have not been identified in ADHD and ASD GWASs before. CONCLUSIONS Our findings identified the genetic variants associated with ADHD and ASD that likely act through gene regulation. This facilitates prioritization of candidate genes for functional follow-up studies.
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Baburamani AA, Vontell RT, Uus A, Pietsch M, Patkee PA, Wyatt-Ashmead J, Chin-Smith EC, Supramaniam VG, Donald Tournier J, Deprez M, Rutherford MA. Assessment of radial glia in the frontal lobe of fetuses with Down syndrome. Acta Neuropathol Commun 2020; 8:141. [PMID: 32819430 PMCID: PMC7441567 DOI: 10.1186/s40478-020-01015-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2020] [Accepted: 08/10/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Down syndrome (DS) occurs with triplication of human chromosome 21 and is associated with deviations in cortical development evidenced by simplified gyral appearance and reduced cortical surface area. Radial glia are neuronal and glial progenitors that also create a scaffolding structure essential for migrating neurons to reach cortical targets and therefore play a critical role in cortical development. The aim of this study was to characterise radial glial expression pattern and morphology in the frontal lobe of the developing human fetal brain with DS and age-matched controls. Secondly, we investigated whether microstructural information from in vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) could reflect histological findings from human brain tissue samples. Immunohistochemistry was performed on paraffin-embedded human post-mortem brain tissue from nine fetuses and neonates with DS (15-39 gestational weeks (GW)) and nine euploid age-matched brains (18-39 GW). Radial glia markers CRYAB, HOPX, SOX2, GFAP and Vimentin were assessed in the Ventricular Zone, Subventricular Zone and Intermediate Zone. In vivo diffusion MRI was used to assess microstructure in these regions in one DS (21 GW) and one control (22 GW) fetal brain. We found a significant reduction in radial glial progenitor SOX2 and subtle deviations in radial glia expression (GFAP and Vimentin) prior to 24 GW in DS. In vivo, fetal MRI demonstrates underlying radial projections consistent with immunohistopathology. Radial glial alterations may contribute to the subsequent simplified gyral patterns and decreased cortical volumes observed in the DS brain. Recent advances in fetal MRI acquisition and analysis could provide non-invasive imaging-based biomarkers of early developmental deviations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana A. Baburamani
- Centre for the Developing Brain, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King’s College London, London, SE1 7EH UK
| | - Regina T. Vontell
- Centre for the Developing Brain, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King’s College London, London, SE1 7EH UK
- University of Miami Brain Endowment Bank, Miami, FL 33136 USA
| | - Alena Uus
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King’s College London, London, SE1 7EH UK
| | - Maximilian Pietsch
- Centre for the Developing Brain, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King’s College London, London, SE1 7EH UK
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King’s College London, London, SE1 7EH UK
| | - Prachi A. Patkee
- Centre for the Developing Brain, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King’s College London, London, SE1 7EH UK
| | - Jo Wyatt-Ashmead
- Neuropathology and Pediatric-Perinatal Pathology Service [NaPPPS], Holly Springs, MS 38635 USA
| | - Evonne C. Chin-Smith
- Centre for the Developing Brain, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King’s College London, London, SE1 7EH UK
| | - Veena G. Supramaniam
- Centre for the Developing Brain, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King’s College London, London, SE1 7EH UK
| | - J. Donald Tournier
- Centre for the Developing Brain, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King’s College London, London, SE1 7EH UK
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King’s College London, London, SE1 7EH UK
| | - Maria Deprez
- Centre for the Developing Brain, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King’s College London, London, SE1 7EH UK
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King’s College London, London, SE1 7EH UK
| | - Mary A. Rutherford
- Centre for the Developing Brain, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King’s College London, London, SE1 7EH UK
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Balaya V, Guimiot F, Bruzzi M, El Batti S, Guedon A, Lhuaire M, Chevallier JM, Douard R, Uhl JF. Feasibility of a fetal anatomy 3D atlas by computer-assisted anatomic dissection. J Gynecol Obstet Hum Reprod 2020; 49:101880. [PMID: 32755668 DOI: 10.1016/j.jogoh.2020.101880] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2020] [Revised: 07/17/2020] [Accepted: 07/21/2020] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To assess the feasibility of 3D modelisation of fetal anatomy by using the Computer-assisted anatomic dissection (CAAD) based on immunolabeled histologic slices and MRI slices with a specific 3D software. STUDY DESIGN For pelvis and lower limbs, subjects came from legal abortion, medical pregnancy termination, or late miscarriage. Specimens were fixed in 10 % formalin, then embedded in paraffin wax and serially sectioned. The histological slices were stained using HES and Masson Trichrome. Protein S-100 and D2-40 markers were used for immuno-labelling. Serial transverse sections were digitalized and manually aligned. Fetal brain slices were obtained from in utero or post-mortem MRI. RESULTS CAAD was performed on 10 fetuses: pelvis was modelised with 3 fetuses of 13, 15 and 24 W G, lower limbs with 2 fetuses of 14 and 15 W G and brain with 5 fetuses aged between 19 and 37 W G. Fetal pelvis innervation was analysed after immunolabelling and nerves appeared proportionally bigger than in adults with the same topography. Lower limbs analysis revealed that nerve development was guided by vascular development: the sciatic nerve along the big axial vein, the saphen nerve along the big saphen vein and the sural nerve along the small saphen vein. Fetal brain study allowed to describe the gyration process and the lateral ventricle development. CONCLUSION CAAD technique provides an accurate 3D reconstruction of fetal anatomy for lower limbs and pelvis but has to be improved for brain model since midline structures were not amendable for analysis. These results need to be confirmed with larger series of specimens at different stages of development.
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Abstract
Clinical signs and neuroimaging patterns associated with the fetal inflammatory response syndrome (FIRS) worsen or mimic the clinical repertoire after intrapartum hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) during labor and/or parturition. Diagnostic considerations expressed as neonatal encephalopathy (NE) must consider chronic as well as acute factors associated with FIRS. Trimester-specific factors adversely alter the interactions of the maternal/placental/fetal (MPF) triad and influence the postnatal phenotype of FIRS. Anticipatory guidance for families by clinicians caring for survivors with FIRS, as well as researchers, must consider acute and chronic effects that influence neurologic outcome. Novel neurotherapeutic interventions must include prenatal preventive as well as peripartum/postnatal rescue and repair strategies to effectively reduce the presence and severity of sequelae from FIRS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark S Scher
- Emeritus Full Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology, Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital/MacDonald Hospital for Women, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, 11100 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, Ohio, 44106, USA.
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Dabbah-Assadi F, Khatib N, Ginsberg Y, Weiner Z, Shamir A, Beloosesky R. Short-Term Effect of MgSO 4 on the Expression of NRG-ErbB, Dopamine, GABA, and Glutamate Systems in the Fetal Rat Brain. J Mol Neurosci 2020; 71:446-454. [PMID: 32691278 DOI: 10.1007/s12031-020-01665-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2020] [Accepted: 07/08/2020] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
MgSO4 has been used for the past two decades as neuroprotective treatment in a variety of preterm conditions. Despite the putative advantages of MgSO4 as a neuroprotective agent in the preterm brain, the short- and long-term molecular function of MgSO4 as a neuroprotective agent has not been fully elucidated. Neuregulin (NRG1)-ErbB4 signaling plays a critical role in embryonic brain development, in the biology of dopaminergic, GABAergic, and glutamatergic systems. We hypothesize that this pathway may be associated with the neuroprotective role of MgSO4. The current study aims to investigate the ability of MgSO4 to modulate the normal developing expression pattern of selected genes related to the NRG1-ErbB, dopaminergic, GABAergic, and glutamatergic systems. We demonstrate that overall short-term treatment of dam rats with MgSO4 affects the expression of fetal brain NRG1, NRG3, ErbB4, GAD67, tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), dopamine D2 and D1 receptors, GluN1, and GluN2B. More specifically, the administration of MgSO4 alters the expression of NRG-ErbB, GAD67, TH, and D2R at early gestation day 16 (GD16) regardless of the activation of the maternal immune system by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Our data suggest that MgSO4 treatment may affect the expression of major neuronal systems and pathways mostly at an early gestation day. These changes might be an initial clue (foundation stone) in the molecular mechanism that underlies the beneficial effect of MgSO4 as a neuroprotective agent for the developmental brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fadwa Dabbah-Assadi
- Psychobiology Research Laboratory, Mazor Mental Health Center, D.N. Oshrat, 25201, Akko, Israel.,The Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Nazar Khatib
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Rambam Medical Center, D.N. Haaleya Hashniya, 3525408, Haifa, Israel
| | - Yuval Ginsberg
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Rambam Medical Center, D.N. Haaleya Hashniya, 3525408, Haifa, Israel
| | - Ze'ev Weiner
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Rambam Medical Center, D.N. Haaleya Hashniya, 3525408, Haifa, Israel
| | - Alon Shamir
- Psychobiology Research Laboratory, Mazor Mental Health Center, D.N. Oshrat, 25201, Akko, Israel. .,The Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
| | - Ron Beloosesky
- The Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. .,Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Rambam Medical Center, D.N. Haaleya Hashniya, 3525408, Haifa, Israel.
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Pradhan S, Kapse K, Jacobs M, Niforatos-Andescavage N, Quistorff JL, Lopez C, Bannantine KL, Andersen NR, Vezina G, Limperopoulos C. Non-invasive measurement of biochemical profiles in the healthy fetal brain. Neuroimage 2020; 219:117016. [PMID: 32526384 PMCID: PMC7491254 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2020] [Revised: 05/26/2020] [Accepted: 06/01/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) of the fetal brain can be used to study emerging metabolite profiles in the developing brain. Identifying early deviations in brain metabolic profiles in high-risk fetuses may offer important adjunct clinical information to improve surveillance and management during pregnancy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Subechhya Pradhan
- Center for the Developing Brain, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC, 20010, USA; Department of Diagnostic Imaging and Radiology, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC, 20010, USA; Department of Radiology, The George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, 20052, USA; Department of Pediatrics, The George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, 20052, USA
| | - Kushal Kapse
- Center for the Developing Brain, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC, 20010, USA
| | - Marni Jacobs
- Department of Biostatistics and Study Methodology, Children's Research Institute, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC, 20010, USA; Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San Diego, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Nickie Niforatos-Andescavage
- Center for the Developing Brain, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC, 20010, USA; Department of Pediatrics, The George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, 20052, USA; Division of Neonatology, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC, 20010, USA
| | - Jessica Lynn Quistorff
- Center for the Developing Brain, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC, 20010, USA
| | - Catherine Lopez
- Center for the Developing Brain, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC, 20010, USA
| | - Kathryn Lee Bannantine
- Center for the Developing Brain, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC, 20010, USA
| | | | - Gilbert Vezina
- Department of Diagnostic Imaging and Radiology, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC, 20010, USA
| | - Catherine Limperopoulos
- Center for the Developing Brain, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC, 20010, USA; Department of Diagnostic Imaging and Radiology, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC, 20010, USA; Department of Radiology, The George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, 20052, USA; Department of Pediatrics, The George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, 20052, USA.
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Akerele OA, Cheema SK. Maternal diet high in Omega-3 fatty acids upregulate genes involved in neurotrophin signalling in fetal brain during pregnancy in C57BL/6 mice. Neurochem Int 2020; 138:104778. [PMID: 32474175 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuint.2020.104778] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2020] [Revised: 05/07/2020] [Accepted: 05/24/2020] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Neurotrophins play a critical role in the development, maintenance, and proper function of the brain. We investigated the effects of maternal diet high in omega (n)-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) on fatty acids composition and the gene expression of neurotrophins in fetal brain at different gestation stages. Female C57BL/6 mice (7-weeks old, n = 8/group) were fed a diet containing high, low or very low n-3 PUFA (9, 3 or 1% w/w, respectively), with an n-6:n-3 PUFA of 5:1, 20:1 and 40:1, respectively, for two weeks before mating and throughout pregnancy. Animals were sacrificed during pregnancy at gestation day 12.5 and 18.5 to determine placental and fetal-brain fatty acids composition. The gene expressions of endothelial lipase (EL) and plasma membrane fatty acid-binding protein (FABPpm) were measured in the placenta, while major facilitator superfamily domain-containing 2a (Mfsd2a), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), tropomyosin-receptor kinase (TrK)-B, and cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) were measured in fetal-brain, using qPCR. The protein expression of phosphorylated CREB (pCREB) was determined using ELISA. The high n-3 PUFA diet increased the mRNA expression of EL, FABPpm, and Mfsd2a at both gestation days, compared to other groups. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and total n-3 PUFA were significantly higher in the high n-3 PUFA group, compared to the other groups at both gestation days. The high n-3 PUFA diet also increased the mRNA expressions of BDNF, TrKB and CREB, as well as the protein concentration of pCREB as gestation progressed, compared to the other groups. Our findings show for the first time that maternal diet high in n-3 PUFA increased the mRNA expression of Mfsd2a, which correlated with an increase in DHA accretion in the fetal-brain. A diet high in n-3 PUFA increased neurotrophin signalling in fetal-brain as gestation progressed, demonstrating the importance of n-3 PUFA during brain development.
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Disdier C, Awa F, Chen X, Dhillon SK, Galinsky R, Davidson JO, Lear CA, Bennet L, Gunn AJ, Stonestreet BS. Lipopolysaccharide-induced changes in the neurovascular unit in the preterm fetal sheep brain. J Neuroinflammation 2020; 17:167. [PMID: 32466771 PMCID: PMC7257152 DOI: 10.1186/s12974-020-01852-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2020] [Accepted: 05/21/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Exposure to inflammation during pregnancy can predispose to brain injury in premature infants. In the present study, we investigated the effects of prolonged exposure to inflammation on the cerebrovasculature of preterm fetal sheep. Methods Chronically instrumented fetal sheep at 103–104 days of gestation (full term is ~ 147 days) received continuous low-dose lipopolysaccharide (LPS) infusions (100 ng/kg over 24 h, followed by 250 ng/kg/24 h for 96 h plus boluses of 1 μg LPS at 48, 72, and 96 h) or the same volume of normal saline (0.9%, w/v). Ten days after the start of LPS exposure at 113–114 days of gestation, the sheep were killed, and the fetal brain perfused with formalin in situ. Vessel density, pericyte and astrocyte coverage of the blood vessels, and astrogliosis in the cerebral cortex and white matter were determined using immunohistochemistry. Results LPS exposure reduced (P < 0.05) microvascular vessel density and pericyte vascular coverage in the cerebral cortex and white matter of preterm fetal sheep, and increased the activation of perivascular astrocytes, but decreased astrocytic vessel coverage in the white matter. Conclusions Prolonged exposure to LPS in preterm fetal sheep resulted in decreased vessel density and neurovascular remodeling, suggesting that chronic inflammation adversely affects the neurovascular unit and, therefore, could contribute to long-term impairment of brain development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clémence Disdier
- Department of Pediatrics, Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, 101 Dudley Street, Providence, RI, 02905, USA
| | - Fares Awa
- Department of Pediatrics, Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, 101 Dudley Street, Providence, RI, 02905, USA
| | - Xiaodi Chen
- Department of Pediatrics, Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, 101 Dudley Street, Providence, RI, 02905, USA
| | | | - Robert Galinsky
- Department of Physiology, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Joanne O Davidson
- Department of Physiology, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Christopher A Lear
- Department of Physiology, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Laura Bennet
- Department of Physiology, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Alistair J Gunn
- Department of Physiology, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Barbara S Stonestreet
- Department of Pediatrics, Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, 101 Dudley Street, Providence, RI, 02905, USA.
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Vasquez-Vivar J, Shi Z, Jeong JW, Luo K, Sharma A, Thirugnanam K, Tan S. Neuronal vulnerability to fetal hypoxia-reoxygenation injury and motor deficit development relies on regional brain tetrahydrobiopterin levels. Redox Biol 2020; 29:101407. [PMID: 31926630 PMCID: PMC6928344 DOI: 10.1016/j.redox.2019.101407] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2019] [Revised: 11/13/2019] [Accepted: 12/09/2019] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Hypertonia is pathognomonic of cerebral palsy (CP), often caused by brain injury before birth. To understand the early driving events of hypertonia, we utilized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) assessment of early critical brain injury in rabbit fetuses (79% term) that will predict hypertonia after birth following antenatal hypoxia-ischemia. We examined if individual variations in the tetrahydrobiopterin cofactor in the parts of the brain controlling motor function could indicate a role in specific damage to motor regions and disruption of circuit integration as an underlying mechanism for acquiring motor disorders, which has not been considered before. The rabbit model mimicked acute placental insufficiency and used uterine ischemia at a premature gestation. MRI during the time of hypoxia-ischemia was used to differentiate which individual fetal brains would become hypertonic. Four brain regions collected immediately after hypoxia-ischemia or 48 h later were analyzed in a blinded fashion. Age-matched sham-operated animals were used as controls. Changes in the reactive nitrogen species and gene expression of the tetrahydrobiopterin biosynthetic enzymes in brain regions were also studied. We found that a combination of low tetrahydrobiopterin content in the cortex, basal ganglia, cerebellum, and thalamus brain regions, but not a unique low threshold of tetrahydrobiopterin, contributed etiologically to hypertonia. The biggest contribution was from the thalamus. Evidence for increased reactive nitrogen species was found in the cortex. By 48 h, tetrahydrobiopterin and gene expression levels in the different parts of the brain were not different between MRI stratified hypertonia and non-hypertonia groups. Sepiapterin treatment given to pregnant dams immediately after hypoxia-ischemia ameliorated hypertonia and death. We conclude that a developmental tetrahydrobiopterin variation is necessary with fetal hypoxia-ischemia and is critical for disrupting normal motor circuits that develop into hypertonia. The possible mechanistic pathway involves reactive nitrogen species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeannette Vasquez-Vivar
- Department of Biophysics and Redox Biology Program, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA
| | - Zhongjie Shi
- Department of Pediatrics, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA
| | - Jeong-Won Jeong
- Department of Pediatrics, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA; Department of Neurology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA
| | - Kehuan Luo
- Department of Pediatrics, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA
| | - Amit Sharma
- Neonatology Division, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, MI, USA
| | - Karthikeyan Thirugnanam
- Department of Biophysics and Redox Biology Program, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA
| | - Sidhartha Tan
- Department of Pediatrics, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA; Neonatology Division, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, MI, USA.
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Behura SK, Dhakal P, Kelleher AM, Balboula A, Patterson A, Spencer TE. The brain-placental axis: Therapeutic and pharmacological relevancy to pregnancy. Pharmacol Res 2019; 149:104468. [PMID: 31600597 PMCID: PMC6944055 DOI: 10.1016/j.phrs.2019.104468] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2019] [Revised: 08/23/2019] [Accepted: 09/27/2019] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
The placenta plays a critical role in mammalian reproduction. Although it is a transient organ, its function is indispensable to communication between the mother and fetus, and supply of nutrients and oxygen to the growing fetus. During pregnancy, the placenta is vulnerable to various intrinsic and extrinsic conditions which can result in increased risk of fetal neurodevelopmental disorders as well as fetal death. The placenta controls the neuroendocrine secretion in the brain as a means of adaptive processes to safeguard the fetus from adverse programs, to optimize fetal development and other physiological changes necessary for reproductive success. Although a wealth of information is available on neuroendocrine functions in pregnancy, they are largely limited to the regulation of hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal/gonad (HPA/ HPG) axis, particularly the oxytocin and prolactin system. There is a major gap in knowledge on systems-level functional interaction between the brain and placenta. In this review, we aim to outline the current state of knowledge about the brain-placental axis with description of the functional interactions between the placenta and the maternal and fetal brain. While describing the brain-placental interactions, a special emphasis has been given on the therapeutics and pharmacology of the placental receptors to neuroligands expressed in the brain during gestation. As a key feature of this review, we outline the prospects of integrated pharmacogenomics, single-cell sequencing and organ-on-chip systems to foster priority areas in this field of research. Finally, we remark on the application of precision genomics approaches to study the brain-placental axis in order to accelerate personalized medicine and therapeutics to treat placental and fetal brain disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susanta K Behura
- Division of Animal Sciences, University of Missouri, United States; Informatics Institute, University of Missouri, United States.
| | - Pramod Dhakal
- Division of Animal Sciences, University of Missouri, United States
| | | | - Ahmed Balboula
- Division of Animal Sciences, University of Missouri, United States
| | - Amanda Patterson
- Division of Animal Sciences, University of Missouri, United States; Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health, University of Missouri, United States
| | - Thomas E Spencer
- Division of Animal Sciences, University of Missouri, United States; Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health, University of Missouri, United States
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Kowash HM, Potter HG, Edye ME, Prinssen EP, Bandinelli S, Neill JC, Hager R, Glazier JD. Poly(I:C) source, molecular weight and endotoxin contamination affect dam and prenatal outcomes, implications for models of maternal immune activation. Brain Behav Immun 2019; 82:160-166. [PMID: 31415868 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2019.08.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2019] [Revised: 08/10/2019] [Accepted: 08/10/2019] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
The viral mimetic polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid (poly(I:C)) is increasingly used to induce maternal immune activation (mIA) to model neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). Robust and reproducible phenotypes across studies are essential for the generation of models that will enhance our understanding of NDDs and enable the development of improved therapeutic strategies. However, differences in mIA-induced phenotypes using poly(I:C) have been widely observed, and this has prompted the reporting of useful and much needed methodological guidelines. Here, we perform a detailed investigation of molecular weight and endotoxin variations in poly(I:C) procured from two of the most commonly used suppliers, Sigma and InvivoGen. We demonstrate that endotoxin contamination and molecular weight differences in poly(I:C) composition lead to considerable variability in maternal IL-6 response in rats treated on gestational day (GD)15 and impact on fetal outcomes. Specifically, both endotoxin contamination and molecular weight predicted reductions in litter size on GD21. Further, molecular weight predicted a reduction in placental weight at GD21. While fetal body weight at GD21 was not affected by poly(I:C) treatment, male fetal brain weight was significantly reduced by poly(I:C), dependent on supplier. Our data are in agreement with recent reports of the importance of poly(I:C) molecular weight, and extend this work to demonstrate a key role of endotoxin on relevant phenotypic outcomes. We recommend that the source and batch numbers of poly(I:C) used should always be stated and that molecular weight variability and endotoxin contamination should be minimised for more robust mIA modelling.
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Affiliation(s)
- H M Kowash
- Division of Developmental Biology and Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9WL, UK
| | - H G Potter
- Division of Evolution and Genomic Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT, UK
| | - M E Edye
- Division of Pharmacy and Optometry, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Biology and Health, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT, UK
| | - E P Prinssen
- Roche Innovation Centre, Basel, 124 Grenzacherstrasse, Basel, CH 4070, Switzerland
| | - S Bandinelli
- Roche Innovation Centre, Basel, 124 Grenzacherstrasse, Basel, CH 4070, Switzerland
| | - J C Neill
- Division of Pharmacy and Optometry, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Biology and Health, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT, UK. http://www.b-neuro.com
| | - R Hager
- Division of Evolution and Genomic Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT, UK
| | - J D Glazier
- Division of Developmental Biology and Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9WL, UK; Division of Evolution and Genomic Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT, UK
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47
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Nghiem GT, Nishijo M, Pham TN, Ito M, Pham TT, Tran AH, Nishimaru H, Nishino Y, Nishijo H. Adverse effects of maternal dioxin exposure on fetal brain development before birth assessed by neonatal electroencephalography (EEG) leading to poor neurodevelopment; a 2-year follow-up study. Sci Total Environ 2019; 667:718-729. [PMID: 30849612 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.395] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/26/2018] [Revised: 02/13/2019] [Accepted: 02/25/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
We previously reported the adverse effects of perinatal dioxin exposure on child neurodevelopment around a former US military airbase in Vietnam. In the present study, we investigated the effects of maternal dioxin exposure on fetal brain development, which may predict neurodevelopmental outcomes in early childhood. A total of 55 newborns with mothers from dioxin-contaminated areas were recruited in the prefecture hospital in Bien Hoa, Vietnam. Dioxins in maternal breast milk collected 1 month after birth were used as a maternal exposure marker. Relative powers and coherence were computed from neonatal electroencephalogram (EEG) records during active sleep stages. Relationships between the EEG parameters and dioxin exposure markers were analyzed using linear regression and a general linear model after adjusting for gestational age, body length, and head circumference of infants at birth. Using data from 47 infants whose neurodevelopment was examined in a 2-year follow-up study, associations between EEG parameters and neurodevelopment were analyzed after adjusting for confounding factors. On the right frontal and parietal regions, relative delta powers were significantly decreased, and relative alpha and beta powers were significantly increased with increasing dioxin exposure. Increases in delta power and decreases in alpha power on the right frontal and parietal regions were associated with an increase in language scores at 2 years of age. Furthermore, intra- and inter-hemispheric coherence in theta and alpha bands were positively and inversely correlated with dioxin exposure, respectively, and increased intra-coherence in the right hemisphere was associated with lower language scores. These findings suggest that prenatal dioxin exposure affects neuronal activity and functional connectivity between brain regions, and may lead to poor language development.
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Affiliation(s)
- GiangThi Thuy Nghiem
- System Emotional Science, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan
| | - Muneko Nishijo
- Department of Public Health, Kanazawa Medical University, Ishikawa 920-0293, Japan.
| | - Thao Ngoc Pham
- Department of Public Health, Kanazawa Medical University, Ishikawa 920-0293, Japan
| | - Mika Ito
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan
| | - Tai The Pham
- Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research Center, Vietnamese Military Medical University, Hanoi, Viet Nam
| | - Anh Hai Tran
- Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research Center, Vietnamese Military Medical University, Hanoi, Viet Nam
| | - Hiroshi Nishimaru
- System Emotional Science, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan
| | - Yoshikazu Nishino
- Department of Public Health, Kanazawa Medical University, Ishikawa 920-0293, Japan
| | - Hisao Nishijo
- System Emotional Science, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan
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48
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Abstract
Prenatal imaging of the central nervous system has proven to be essential in the detection of anomalies to guide counseling and intrauterine and postnatal therapies. However, understanding the appearance of normal is important because the fetal brain changes dramatically during the pregnancy. In this review, normal imaging of the brain with ultrasound and MR imaging is discussed. The initial section stresses techniques for both modalities. The second section describes ultrasound and MR landmarks in a normal fetal brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Beth M Kline-Fath
- Department of Radiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA.
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49
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Yun HJ, Chung AW, Vasung L, Yang E, Tarui T, Rollins CK, Ortinau CM, Grant PE, Im K. Automatic labeling of cortical sulci for the human fetal brain based on spatio-temporal information of gyrification. Neuroimage 2019; 188:473-482. [PMID: 30553042 PMCID: PMC6452886 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.12.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2018] [Revised: 11/20/2018] [Accepted: 12/11/2018] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Accurate parcellation and labeling of primary cortical sulci in the human fetal brain is useful for regional analysis of brain development. However, human fetal brains show large spatio-temporal changes in brain size, cortical folding patterns, and relative position/size of cortical regions, making accurate automatic sulcal labeling challenging. Here, we introduce a novel sulcal labeling method for the fetal brain using spatio-temporal gyrification information from multiple fetal templates. First, spatial probability maps of primary sulci are generated on the templates from 23 to 33 gestational weeks and registered to an individual brain. Second, temporal weights, which determine the level of contribution to the labeling for each template, are defined by similarity of gyrification between the individual and the template brains. We combine the weighted sulcal probability maps from the multiple templates and adopt sulcal basin-wise approach to assign sulcal labels to each basin. Our labeling method was applied to 25 fetuses (22.9-29.6 gestational weeks), and the labeling accuracy was compared to manually assigned sulcal labels using the Dice coefficient. Moreover, our multi-template basin-wise approach was compared to a single-template approach, which does not consider the temporal dynamics of gyrification, and a fully-vertex-wise approach. The mean accuracy of our approach was 0.958 across subjects, significantly higher than the accuracies of the other approaches. This novel approach shows highly accurate sulcal labeling and provides a reliable means to examine characteristics of cortical regions in the fetal brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyuk Jin Yun
- Fetal Neonatal Neuroimaging and Developmental Science Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA; Division of Newborn Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Ai Wern Chung
- Fetal Neonatal Neuroimaging and Developmental Science Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA; Division of Newborn Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Lana Vasung
- Fetal Neonatal Neuroimaging and Developmental Science Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA; Division of Newborn Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Edward Yang
- Department of Radiology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Tomo Tarui
- Fetal Neonatal Neuroimaging and Developmental Science Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA; Division of Newborn Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA; Mother Infant Research Institute, Tufts Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, 02111, USA; Department of Pediatrics, Tufts Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, 02111, USA
| | - Caitlin K Rollins
- Department of Neurology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Cynthia M Ortinau
- Department of Pediatrics, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, 63110, USA
| | - P Ellen Grant
- Fetal Neonatal Neuroimaging and Developmental Science Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA; Division of Newborn Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA; Department of Radiology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Kiho Im
- Fetal Neonatal Neuroimaging and Developmental Science Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA; Division of Newborn Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
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50
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Yahal O, Katorza E, Zvi E, Berkenstadt M, Hoffman C, Achiron R, Bar-Yosef O. Prenatal diagnosis of arachnoid cysts: MRI features and neurodevelopmental outcome. Eur J Radiol 2019; 113:232-237. [PMID: 30927952 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejrad.2019.02.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2018] [Revised: 01/20/2019] [Accepted: 02/19/2019] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Arachnoid cysts (AC) are congenital lesions comprising 1% of all intracranial mass lesions. The aim of this study was to characterize arachnoid cysts and their neurodevelopmental outcome and to compare it with the outcome of children without AC. METHODS This is a retrospective cohort study of arachnoid cysts detected prenatally by fetal MRI in 29 fetuses compared to a control group of 59 fetuses without arachnoid cyst who were examined by MRI. The cohort was investigated from two different angles: anatomical and developmental. Anatomical analyzation, the cohort was divided into 2 groups by the arachnoid cyst anatomical location: group A (n = 9), which included cases with supratentorial cyst, and group B (n = 20), which included cases with infratentorial cyst. Developmental analyzation, the cohort was divided into 2 groups by the neurodevelopmental outcome: group γ (n = 5) which included cases that were affected by arachnoid cyst presence, and group δ (n = 17) which included cases that had neurodevelopmental outcome within the normal range. Data collected included prenatal history, MRI features, sonographic follow up, and neurodevelopmental outcome. RESULTS In 22/29 cases we achieved a long-term follow up, by evaluation of children development in a range of ages from 6 months to 6 years. In group A (n = 9), 4 infants had normal outcome, 2 had abnormal outcome, 1 pregnancy was terminated, and 2 cases were not cooperative with the study. In group B (n = 20), 13 infants had normal outcome, 3 had abnormal outcome, and 4 cases were not cooperative with the study. CONCLUSIONS From all cases with AC detected by fetal MRI, 77.3% had normal neurodevelopmental outcome and 22.7% had abnormal neurodevelopment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Orr Yahal
- Department of Pediatric Neurology, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel; Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel.
| | - Eldad Katorza
- Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; Antenatal Diagnostic Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel
| | - Elad Zvi
- Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Michal Berkenstadt
- Danek Gertner Institute of Human Genetics, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel
| | - Chen Hoffman
- Antenatal Diagnostic Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel; Neuroradiology Unit, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel
| | - Reuven Achiron
- Antenatal Diagnostic Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel
| | - Omer Bar-Yosef
- Department of Pediatric Neurology, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel; Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
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