Publications by authors named "N Darbinian"
Article Synopsis
- * A study compared placentas from pregnant women who used opioids or alcohol with control samples to analyze SERT expression using quantitative western blot techniques.
- * Opioid exposure resulted in unique SERT modifications and new fragments, while alcohol exposure led to lower overall SERT levels, suggesting that these changes may affect fetal brain development and neurotransmission.
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) are leading causes of neurodevelopmental disability but cannot be diagnosed early in utero. Because several microRNAs (miRNAs) are implicated in other neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders, the effects of EtOH exposure on the expression of these miRNAs and their target genes and pathways were assessed. In women who drank alcohol (EtOH) during pregnancy and non-drinking controls, matched individually for fetal sex and gestational age, the levels of miRNAs in fetal brain-derived exosomes (FB-Es) isolated from the mothers' serum correlated well with the contents of the corresponding fetal brain tissues obtained after voluntary pregnancy termination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Maternal obesity affects 39.7% of reproductive-age women in the United States. Emerging research has suggested that in utero exposure to maternal obesity is associated with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes, but knowledge of underlying mechanisms in human samples is lacking.
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- Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) display behavioral issues like hyperactivity and depression, potentially linked to the effects of alcohol (EtOH) on fetal brain development, particularly serotonin (5-HT) and dopamine (DA) pathways.
- The study aimed to investigate the impact of maternal EtOH and SSRI use during pregnancy on fetal neural development by analyzing gene expression and biomarkers in fetal brain tissues and exosomes from maternal blood.
- Results indicated that EtOH exposure led to significant changes in the expression of DA and 5-HT receptors in exposed fetal brain samples compared to controls, highlighting potential neurodevelopmental risks associated with maternal alcohol consumption.
Introduction: Up to 9.9% of children have fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), the most frequent cause of intellectual disability in the US. FASD may involve abnormal brain development, including dysmyelination, suggesting abnormal development of oligodendrocytes (OLs), which make myelin and are rich in lipids.
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