Genome-wide DNA methylation and gene expression in human placentas derived from assisted reproductive technology.

Background: Assisted reproductive technology (ART) has been associated with increased risks for growth disturbance, disrupted imprinting as well as cardiovascular and metabolic disorders. However, the molecular mechanisms and whether they are a result of the ART procedures or the underlying subfertility are unknown.

Methods: We performed genome-wide DNA methylation (EPIC Illumina microarrays) and gene expression (mRNA sequencing) analyses for a total of 80 ART and 77 control placentas.

Cumulative risk factors for injuries and poisoning requiring hospital care in youth with prenatal substance exposure: A longitudinal controlled cohort study.

To investigate whether the youth with prenatal substance exposure (PSE) (aged 15-24 years,  = 615) had been in hospital care more often due to injuries and poisoning in comparison with unexposed matched controls ( = 1787). Data from medical records (exposure) and national health and social welfare registers (outcome and confounders) were combined and youths were monitored from birth until either outpatient or inpatient hospital care for injury or poisoning, death or the end of the study period (December 2016). Cox regression models were used in the analyses accounting for associated child and maternal risk factors.

Extended-release versus oral buprenorphine as opioid maintenance treatment during pregnancy-maternal and neonatal outcomes.

Objective: To get information on subcutaneous extended-release buprenorphine as opioid maintenance treatment during pregnancy, we compared it to orally administered buprenorphine and buprenorphine-naloxone treatments. We hypothesized that maternal and neonatal outcomes do not differ between the treatment groups. Study design In this population-based cohort study, 60 pregnant individuals receiving non-changed opioid maintenance treatment for opioid use disorder with a buprenorphine product from the time before conception to the time after delivery and their newborns were included.

Intrauterine exposure to maternal opioid maintenance treatment and associated risk factors may impair child growth.

Aim: How maternal opioid maintenance treatment (OMT) affects children is under-researched. This population-based registry study investigated child growth and somatic health following intrauterine exposure to this treatment.

Methods: Children born between 1 March 2011 and 30 May 2021 to mothers who used buprenorphine, buprenorphine-naloxone, or methadone throughout their pregnancies were followed for 2 years at the Helsinki University Hospital, Finland.

Rapid urine screening for ethyl glucuronide from pregnant women as a tool for detecting prenatal alcohol exposure.

Background: An increasing prevalence of alcohol consumption is a major public health problem, which has also led to an increasing number of children who have been prenatally exposed to the toxic effects of ethanol. However, obtaining reliable information on prenatal alcohol exposure through maternal self-reports has proved difficult.

Aims: Our aim was to evaluate the potential for rapid screening test for measuring ethyl glucuronide (EtG), a specific alcohol metabolite, from urine samples of pregnant women.