Latest Fetus Stories

A common biological molecule is central to placental growth and could hold the key to mitigating growth restriction of babies in the wombScientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have shown that a common biological protein molecule called SHP-2 is crucial for encouraging placenta growth. The research is published yesterday in Endocrinology.Dr Melissa Westwood, one of the team at the University of Manchester said: "For fetuses to grow well in...

Canadian scientists say they've discovered a specific protein plays a critical role in regulating intrauterine growth and lung maturation. University of Montreal researchers, led by Professor Sylvain Meloche, say their findings show the loss of protein kinase Erk3 in mice leads to fetal growth restriction and early neonatal lethality caused by respiratory distress. The scientists said respiratory distress syndrome is a serious complication in premature and intrauterine growth-restricted...

The protein kinase Erk3 plays a critical role in intrauterine growth and lung maturationDr. Sylvain Meloche, Principal Investigator at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the Université de Montréal, and his colleagues have uncovered the critical role played by the protein kinase Erk3 in fetal growth potential and lung maturation. The recent findings, published in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveal that the...

A new study by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine reveals a key component in the development of preeclampsia in pregnant women, a condition that can result in miscarriage and maternal death.The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, appears in the September issue of Endocrinology.In it, researchers focused on identifying the differences in the uteri of pregnant women with and without preeclampsia and how the mother's tissues vary from the immediately...

A new type of fetal heart monitor could save the lives of unborn infants in complicated pregnancies, according to a study published in the International Journal of Engineering Systems Modelling and Simulation.A.K. Mittra of the Department of Electronics Engineering, at the Manoharbhai Patel Institute of Engineering & Technology, in Gondia, India, and colleagues have developed a simple device based on a two-microphone system that can monitor fetal heart rate during the mother's rest times...

A British doctor warns mothers-to-be not to use personal monitoring devices because they may lead to a false sense of security and delay medical action. Dr. Thomas Aust and colleagues at Arrowe Park Hospital in England told of a 27-year-old pregnant woman who presented to the hospital 32 weeks into her first pregnancy with reduced fetal movements. The women had noticed a reduction in her baby's activity two days earlier, but said she had used her own Doppler fetal monitoring device to...

Women with epilepsy who have seizures during pregnancy appear more likely to give birth to pre-term, small or low-birth-weight babies than women without epilepsy, according to a new report."While approximately 40 percent of the 18 million women with epilepsy in the world are of childbearing age," Yi-Hua Chen, Ph.D., of Tai Pei Medical University, Taiwan, and colleagues were quoted as saying, "managing maternal epilepsy and monitoring the health of the developing fetus remain some of the...

CHICAGO, Aug. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Drinking alcohol while pregnant increases the chances that a child will have Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Although this disorder affects 40,000 infants a year, more than Spina Bifida, Down Syndrome and Muscular Dystrophy combined, it is still relatively unaddressed. The Chicago-area FASTeam and a group of motorcycle enthusiasts are riding to raise awareness with the 2009 F.A.S.T. Ride. Where: Galway's Bar & Grill...

Fetal death, or intrauterine fetal demise (IUFD), caused by an under-sized placenta, affects 30,000 women in the U.S. each year.Technological limits currently prevent doctors from monitoring the growth of the placenta, the source of nourishment for the fetus. "The placenta can be so small that the fetus literally runs out of food and oxygen and dies," lead author Harvey J. Kliman, M.D., a research scientist in the Yale University Medical School Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and...

 To combat the many fetal deaths that occur annually because the placenta is too small, researchers at Yale School of Medicine have developed a method to measure the volume of the placenta, which provides nourishment to the fetus.Limits in current technology keep doctors from being able to monitor the growth of the placenta, which, like the gas tank of a car, is the source of fuel for the fetus. The placenta can be so small that the fetus literally runs out of food and oxygen and dies,...