Common anesthetics appear safe for developing fetal brain
...rs also examined the brain tissue from the exposed fetuses and found no evidence of neurodegeneration or apoptosis. The researchers said the timing of the exposures to anesthetic agents is an important consideration when determining how closely animal models reflect what may occur in humans. The brains of di...Americans support most uses of reproductive genetic testing, report on US attitudes reveals
...s. The studies probed the use of testing embryos, fetuses and adults. Information from genetic tests can be used to decide whether to attempt, continue or terminate a pregnancy, or to select which embryos produced through IVF to use to try to start a pregnancy. While most participants had heard of genetic ...National Academies advisory: Report assesses health implications of perchlorate exposure
...ed to the 0.007 mg/kg per day level to protect the fetuses of pregnant women who might have hypothyroidism or iodide deficiency. This results in the 0.0007 mg/kg per day reference dose recommended in the report. One committee member, concerned over the adequacy of the data, dissented and thought that an a...Promise of stem cells amplified
...ous efforts to collect oligodendrocytes from human fetuses resulted in samples contaminated with other cell types and oligodendrocytes at different stages of development. This pure population will allow researchers to explore the value of using oligodendrocytes in other applications. In other work, scientis...Aiding decision making for Baby Charlotte and Baby Luke
... party to examine issues around prolonging life in fetuses and newborn babies. Aiding decision making outside the courts should be one of their terms of reference.'...Drug to fight virus in transplant patients moves forward in trials
... high risk of CMV infection, as are AIDS patients, fetuses and newborns. In these patients, CMV can lead to conditions such as pneumonitis or hepatitis, or to complications such as acute or chronic rejection of a transplanted organ. When contracted in utero or at birth, CMV can cause babies to be born with b...Preimplant test offers option of having child to serve as stem cell donor to sibling in need
...yping in mid pregnancy, with selective abortion of fetuses who are poorly matched with the living affected child. This approach, while apparently rare, has been reported." "What are the concerns about this evolving and expanding application of genetic and reproductive technology? As with all new technologies...Emory researcher examines effects of antiepileptic drugs on pregnant women and their offspring
...gative, lasting impact on the developing brains of fetuses when mothers take them while pregnant. The four medications being studied are carbamazepine (Tegretol, Tegretol-XR, Carbatrol), lamotrigine (Lamictal), phenytoin (Dilantin) and valproate (Depakote). In the study, funded by the National Institutes of ...Environmental and dietary influences on cancer risk
...omatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are damaging the DNA of fetuses in the womb. The type of DNA damage measured here (termed "carcinogen-DNA adducts") has been shown to increase the risk of cancer in humans. Four population groups were selected for the study, including mothers and their newborns from two sit...Clear information, privacy vital when breaking bad news
...ogical trauma experienced by women who learn their fetuses have abnormalities is greatly influenced by the way the news is delivered, previous research has shown. In their study, Windrim and his colleagues examined the experiences of 117 women referred to Mount Sinai in 2000 who were informed of adverse preg...UF research adds to evidence that unborn children hear 'melody' of speech
... bolstered previous findings suggesting that human fetuses likely hear mostly low-frequency rather than high-... room, the womb can be noisy place, he said. Also, fetuses don't "hear" as much with their ears as children or adults do because their ears are filled with flu...Parents who decline autopsies may miss out on vital information
...180 (0.6%) in 1996-2000, whereas the percentage of fetuses that underwent autopsy fell from 84% to 67%. In more than a quarter of cases, where the prenatal diagnosis was by ultrasound scan alone, the autopsy provided important information that changed the estimated risk of recurrence. In 8% of cases this was...American Thoracic Society Journal news tips for December 2003 (first issue)
...with no asthma. In addition, they noted that male fetuses seem to be insensitive to the effects of inflammation in the mother. The study appears in the first issue for December 2003 of the American Thoracic Society's peer-reviewed American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. IMPAIRED AROUSA...Magnesium sulfate to mothers just prior to delivery of preterm babies may improve outcomes
...alia and New Zealand. It included 1,062 women with fetuses younger than 30 weeks' gestation for whom delivery was planned or expected within 24 hours. The participants were enrolled from February 1996 to September 2000 with follow-up of surviving children at 2 years of age. Women were randomly assigned to ...Survival improves in clinical trial for severe birth defect, with or without fetal surgery
...d form of standard postnatal care. In both groups, fetuses were diagnosed with a severe form of CDH that caus...d neonatal care from the moment of birth will give fetuses with one type of severe CDH a similar chance of survival as fetal intervention, without the need for...Fetal surgery for spina bifida shows early benefits in leg function, fewer shunts
...een 1998 and 2002. The mean gestational age of the fetuses undergoing the surgery was 23 weeks, and their mea... selected" population. The team did not operate on fetuses in whom fetal ultrasound detected irreversible neurologic damage, nor on fetuses in which the spina ...Children's Hospital Boston releases results at the American Academy of Pediatrics Annual Meeting
...ay be uniquely suited for transplantation in other fetuses because they underexpress biologic markers often responsible for immunologic rejection. The researchers also report successfully using umbilical cord blood samples for the first time to engineer fetal cartilage tissue in sheep. Until recently, inv...A new method for assessing neurological development of fetuses?
...es within a six-minute period were targeted at ten fetuses aged between 28 and 36 weeks, of whom four showed brain responses. Curtis Lowery comments: In this preliminary study, we have shown that brain activity to visual stimuli can be recorded by use of MEG in human fetuses. Further studies with improved st...Using cocaine during pregnancy may damage developing fetuses, causing lifelong learning disabilities
...in short term memory, are in some way altered when fetuses are exposed to cocaine. The researchers examined the brains of animals exposed to cocaine in the womb and found that the medial prefrontal cortex showed dramatic activation not seen in other cortical regions. The product of a gene, FOS, was used to m...Jefferson researchers have early evidence of bone marrow stem cells able to become brain cells
...won't have to use embryonic stem cells and aborted fetuses for stem cell lines." There is one caveat, she notes. To date, the new neurons revert back to their original undifferentiated state in two to three days. "The bigger problem to solve is how to keep them differentiated," she says. A key, she says, ma...