Obesity in pregnant women: a 20-year analysis of the German experience.

Background/objective: To investigate the longitudinal development of maternal body weight and analyze the influence of obesity on obstetrics during more than two decades in Germany.

Subjects/methods: Data collected from the Federal state of Schleswig-Holstein (German Perinatal Survey) were analyzed with regard to the dynamics of maternal anthropometric variables (body weight, BMI) between 1995-7 and 2004-17. In total 335,511 mothers substantiated the presented study-collective.

Minipuberty: Why Does it Happen?

Minipuberty describes the transient sex-specific activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis during the first 6 months of life in boys and during the first 2 years in girls. It leads to a rise of luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, estradiol, and testosterone. The existence of minipuberty has been known for >40 years, but we still do not fully understand why it takes place.

[Influence of Parental Body Measurements on Birth Weight of Eutrophic Term Newborns with Special Consideration of Paternal Body Measurements].

A significant influence of maternal body height and weight on neonatal birth outcome has been confirmed before, whereas the influence of paternal traits is rather unknown. In order to analyze the correlation between parental body measurements and the birth weight of newborns, data of 1312 eutrophic term newborns and their parents were collected based on a multicenter study in 10 participating German maternity clinics. The collected data included the birth weight of the infants and the body height and weight of their parents.

From melody to words: The role of sex hormones in early language development.

Contribution to Special Issue on Fast effects of steroids. Human infants are the most proficient of the few vocal learner species. Sharing similar principles in terms of the generation and modification of complex sounds, cross-vocal learner comparisons are a suitable strategy when it comes to better understanding the evolution and mechanisms of auditory-vocal learning in human infants.

Dyslexia risk variant rs600753 is linked with dyslexia-specific differential allelic expression of DYX1C1.

An increasing number of genetic variants involved in dyslexia development were discovered during the last years, yet little is known about the molecular functional mechanisms of these SNPs. In this study we investigated whether dyslexia candidate SNPs have a direct, disease-specific effect on local expression levels of the assumed target gene by using a differential allelic expression assay. In total, 12 SNPs previously associated with dyslexia and related phenotypes were suitable for analysis.

External skeletal robusticity of children and adolescents - European references from birth to adulthood and international comparisons.

In our modern world, the way of life in nutritional and activity behaviour has changed. As a consequence, parallel trends of an epidemic of overweight and a decline in external skeletal robusticity are observed in children and adolescents. We aim to develop reference centiles for external skeletal robusticity of European girls and boys aged 0 to 18 years using the Frame Index as an indicator and identify population specific age-related patterns.

Inspiratory Phonation in Baby Voice.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the developmental occurrence of inspiratory phonations (IPs) in the spontaneous cries of healthy infants across the first 10 weeks of life.

Study Design: This is a populational retrospective study.

Participants: The spontaneous crying of 17 healthy infants (10 were male) was retrospectively investigated.

Cross-sectional analysis of universal vitamin D supplementation in former East Germany during the first year of life.

Background: Universal vitamin D supplementation is controversial. Preventative examinations and public health initiatives in former East Germany that included vitamin D prophylaxis for children were regulated by official recommendations and guidelines. The aim of this study is to analyse the impact of a standardised nationwide guideline for universal supplementation with 400 International Units (IU) vitamin D3/day during the first year of life on clinical and biochemical parameters and the influence of surrounding factors.

Fundamental Frequency Variation in Crying of Mandarin and German Neonates.

Objectives: This study examined whether prenatal exposure to either a tonal or a nontonal maternal language affects fundamental frequency (fo) properties in neonatal crying.

Study Design: This is a population prospective study.

Participants: A total of 102 neonates within the first week of life served as the participants.

Baby babbling at five months linked to sex hormone levels in early infancy.

Gender-dependent differentiation of the brain at morphological, neurochemical and functional levels of organization have been shown to be primarily controlled by sex differences in gonadal hormone concentrations during pre- and early postnatal development. Indeed, previous studies have reported that pre- and perinatal hormonal environments influence brain development and, consequently, affect sex specific long-term language outcomes. Herein, we investigated whether postnatal surges of estrogen (estradiol) and androgen (testosterone) may predict properties of pre-speech babbling at five months.

Fundamental Frequency of Crying in Two-month-old Boys and Girls: Do Sex Hormones During Mini-puberty Mediate Differences?

Objective: To evaluate whether the puberty-like sex hormone surge during the first months of life (mini-puberty) affects fundamental frequency (fo) in infant crying as one would derive from hormone influences on voice in adults.

Study Design: Populational prospective study.

Participants: Twenty healthy normal-hearing infants (nine boys) were recruited for participation.

Hormonal 'minipuberty' influences the somatic development of boys but not of girls up to the age of 6 years.

Objective: Hormonal 'minipuberty' refers to a transient sex-specific surge of LH, FSH, testosterone (T) and estradiol (E2) in the first few months of life. We hypothesized a potential long-term effect of this hormonal surge on somatic parameters in the following years and therefore designed this longitudinal study.

Design: A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to analyse the potential influence of hormone concentrations during minipuberty on anthropometric measurements conducted in the first 6 years of life.

Sex hormones in early infancy seem to predict aspects of later language development.

Sex differences in the development of cognitive behavior such as language have long been of great research interest. Lately, researchers have started to associate language function and brain differences with diverse sex hormones (e.g.

Sex hormone influence on human infants' sound characteristics: melody in spontaneous crying.

The specific impact of sex hormones on brain development and acoustic communication is known from animal models. Sex steroid hormones secreted during early development play an essential role in hemispheric organization and the functional lateralization of the brain, e.g.

Somatic classification of neonates based on birth weight, length, and head circumference: quantification of the effects of maternal BMI and smoking.

We defined neonates as small, appropriate, or large for gestational age (SGA, AGA, LGA) based on birth weight, length, and head circumference. We analyzed the effects on the somatic classification of maternal body mass index (BMI) (<18.5, 18.

Randomised controlled trial analysing supplementation with 250 versus 500 units of vitamin D3, sun exposure and surrounding factors in breastfed infants.

Background: The rate of non-compliance with vitamin D supplementation is as high as 45%. This is why randomised controlled trials are needed to analyse the response to low doses of vitamin D3.

Objective: (1) To compare supplementation with 250 versus 500 units of vitamin D3 and (2) to analyse sun exposure time/ultraviolet B (UVB) exposure during the first 6 weeks of life.

Height gains in response to growth hormone treatment to final height are similar in patients with SHOX deficiency and Turner syndrome.

Background: Patients with mutations or deletions of the Short Stature Homeobox-containing(SHOX) gene have variable degrees of growth impairment, with or without mesomelic skeletal dysplasia. If untreated, short patients with SHOX deficiency remain short in adulthood. Growth hormone (GH) treatment improves short-term linear growth; however, there are no data on GH treatment effects on final height.

Sex hormone testosterone affects language organization in the infant brain.

Using a phonological discrimination paradigm, we show that the brain responses of 4-week-old infants systematically vary as a function of biological sex and testosterone level. Females who are generally low on testosterone demonstrated a clear phonological discrimination effect with a bilateral distribution. In male infants this effect systematically varied as a function of testosterone level.

Three novel missense mutations within the LHX4 gene are associated with variable pituitary hormone deficiencies.

Context: The LHX4 LIM-homeodomain transcription factor has essential roles in pituitary gland and nervous system development. Heterozygous mutations in LHX4 are associated with combined pituitary hormone deficiency.

Objectives: Our objectives were to determine the nature and frequency of LHX4 mutations in patients with pituitary hormone deficiency and to examine the functional outcomes of observed mutations.

BNP is a transcriptional target of the short stature homeobox gene SHOX.

Short stature due to SHOX deficiency represents a common congenital form of growth failure and is involved in the aetiology of 'idiopathic' short stature and the growth deficits and skeletal anomalies in Leri-Weill, Langer and Turner syndromes. Although much is known on the clinical and molecular aspects of SHOX haploinsufficiency, the integration of SHOX in the signalling pathways regulating bone growth is currently not defined. Here we identify NPPB encoding the natriuretic peptide, BNP, a well-known cardiac and natriuretic peptide hormone, as a transcriptional target of SHOX.

Subclinical hyperthyroidism due to a thyrotropin receptor (TSHR) gene mutation (S505R).

Aim: To identify the molecular defect by which non-autoimmune subclinical hyperthyroidism was caused in a 6-mo-old infant who presented with weight loss.

Methods: Congenital non-autoimmune hyperthyroidism is caused by activating germline mutations in the thyrotropin receptor (TSHR) gene. Therefore, the TSHR gene was sequenced directly from the patient's genomic DNA.

The relationship between maternal characteristics, birth weight and pre-term delivery: evidence from Germany at the end of the 20th century.

Using data from a sample of German women, this paper analyzes the relationship between maternal characteristics and infants' birth weight and pre-term delivery. Besides typical epidemiological factors that influence the weight of infants, such as the gestational age and maternal BMI at the beginning of the pregnancy, we find a West--East gradient. Within West Germany, there is a small North-South gradient in birth weight, with larger birth weights in the north.

SHOX haploinsufficiency and Leri-Weill dyschondrosteosis: prevalence and growth failure in relation to mutation, sex, and degree of wrist deformity.

SHOX mutations causing haploinsufficiency were reported in Leri-Weill dyschondrosteosis (LWD), which is characterized by mesomelic short stature and Madelung deformity of the wrists. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of SHOX mutations in LWD and to investigate the degree of growth failure in relation to mutation, sex, age of menarche, and wrist deformity. We studied 20 families with 24 affected children (18 females) and nine affected parents (seven females).