Effect of aspirin on biomarker profile in women at high risk for preeclampsia.

Background: There is limited evidence in the literature regarding the temporal changes of preeclampsia-related biomarkers during pregnancy in high-risk women who develop preeclampsia despite the administration of aspirin prophylaxis.

Objective: This study aimed to compare the temporal changes in mean arterial pressure, uterine artery pulsatility index, placental growth factor, and soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 across gestation in women identified as having high risk for preterm preeclampsia receiving aspirin prophylaxis and low-risk women without aspirin treatment.

Study Design: This was a prospective longitudinal nested case-control study of 2007 women with singleton pregnancies who participated in the first-trimester screen-and-prevent program for preeclampsia at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China, between January 2020 and May 2023.

Preventive effect of prenatal maternal oral probiotic supplementation on neonatal jaundice (POPS Study): A protocol for the randomised double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial.

Introduction: Neonatal jaundice is a common and life-threatening health problem in neonates due to overaccumulation of circulating unconjugated bilirubin. Gut flora has a potential influence on bilirubin metabolism. The infant gut microbiome is commonly copied from the maternal gut.

Monochorionic twins with selective fetal growth restriction: insight from placental whole-transcriptome analysis.

Background: The underlying pathomechanism in placenta-related selective fetal growth restriction in monochorionic diamniotic twin pregnancy is not known.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate any differences in placental transcriptomic profile between the selectively growth-restricted twins and the normally grown cotwins in monochorionic diamniotic twin pregnancies.

Study Design: This was a prospective study of monochorionic diamniotic twin pregnancies complicated by selective fetal growth restriction.

Placental microRNA dataset of monochorionic twin pregnancies with and without selective fetal growth restriction.

To compare the whole genomic microRNA (miRNA) between the selective fetal growth restriction (sFGR) twin and the normally growing (control) co-twin in monochorionic (MC) twin pregnancies. MC twin pregnancies with or without sFGR were recruited, and their placental miRNAs were profiled by microarray. The ratio of the placental miRNA of the sFGR twin to that of the normally larger co-twin were calculated and compared to that of the control twin pairs.

Whole genome miRNA profiling revealed miR-199a as potential placental pathogenesis of selective fetal growth restriction in monochorionic twin pregnancies.

Introduction: Placental-related mechanism of fetal growth restriction (FGR) is still unknown. Here we aimed to profile whole-genome miRNA between selective FGR twin (sFGR-T) and normally larger co-twin (sL-T) in monochorionic (MC) twin pregnancies and to further investigate effect of the miRNA on placental pathogenesis, including angiogenesis and mitochondrial functions.

Methods: MC twin pregnancies with or without sFGR were recruited, and their placental miRNAs were profiled (n = 3 vs 5).

Ovarian HBV replication following ovulation induction in female hepatitis B carriers undergoing IVF treatment: A prospective observational study.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) can be found in ovarian tissues. This study compared HBV DNA levels in follicular fluid collected during oocyte retrieval with paired serum samples in HBV carriers after ovarian stimulation during IVF treatment for infertility. Sixty-four HBV carrier women referred to the Assisted Reproductive Units of two Hong Kong hospitals were recruited.

Presence of Hepatitis B virus DNA in follicular fluid in female Hepatitis B carriers and outcome of IVF/ICSI treatment: A prospective observational study.

Objective: To determine the relationship between the presence of detectable HBV DNA in the follicular fluid in HBV carriers with IVF/ICSI treatment outcome.

Study Design: A prospective observational study conducted in the Assisted Reproductive Unit, a tertiary referral centre affiliated with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; and the Union Reproductive Medicine Centre at Union Hospital, Hong Kong. The primary outcome measure was pregnancy rate.

Perturbation of Retinoid Homeostasis Increases Malformation Risk in Embryos Exposed to Pregestational Diabetes.

Pregestational diabetes is highly associated with an increased risk of birth defects. However, factors that can increase or reduce the expressivity and penetrance of malformations in pregnancies in women with diabetes remain poorly identified. All- retinoic acid (RA) plays crucial roles in embryogenesis.

Implication of Wt1 in the pathogenesis of nephrogenic failure in a mouse model of retinoic acid-induced caudal regression syndrome.

Renal malformations are common human birth defects that sometimes occur in the context of the caudal regression syndrome. Here, we found that exposure of pregnant mice to all-trans retinoic acid, at a time when the metanephros has yet to form, causes a failure of kidney development along with caudal regression. Maternal treatment with Am580 (retinoic acid receptor alpha agonist) also induced similar patterns of kidney maldevelopment in the fetus.

Maternal diabetes increases the risk of caudal regression caused by retinoic acid.

Maternal diabetes increases the risk of congenital malformations in the offspring of affected pregnancies. This increase arises from the teratogenic effect of the maternal diabetic milieu on the developing embryo, although the mechanism of this action is poorly understood. In the present study, we examined whether the vitamin A metabolite retinoic acid (RA), a common drug with well-known teratogenic properties, may interact with maternal diabetes to alter the incidence of congenital malformations in mice.