A new study shows oxygenation levels in the placenta, formed during the last three months of fetal development, are an important predictor of cortical growth (development of the outermost layer of the brain or cerebral cortex) and is likely a predictor of childhood cognition and behavior.
A new study shows oxygenation levels in the placenta, formed during the last three months of fetal development, are an important predictor of cortical growth and is likely a predictor of childhood cognition and behavior.
"While ultrasound provides some measure of placental function, it is imprecise and prone to error, so MRI is just a bit more specific and precise," said Nichols, lead author of the study."You wouldn't use MRI necessarily to diagnose placental growth restriction, you would use ultrasound, but MRI gives us a much better way to understand the mechanisms of the placenta and how placental function is affecting the fetal brain.
Poor nutrition, smoking, cocaine use, chronic hypertension, anemia, and diabetes may result in fetal growth restriction and may cause problems for the development of the placenta. Fetal growth restriction is relatively common and happens in about six per cent of all pregnancies and globally impacts 30 million pregnancies each year.
The study, funded by grants from Brain Canada, The Children's Health Research Institute, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, BrainsCAN and the Molly Towell Perinatal Research Foundation, is also an important first step in biomarking the impact of oxygenation levels in the placenta and considering changes for expectant mothers to deal with less-than-ideal placental conditions.
"We now have a better understanding of how the placenta affects the cortex. With this basic knowledge, we now have an idea of how these two things are related and we can identify or benchmark healthy levels that lead to brain cortical growth," said Nichols."The subcortical regions of the brain appear to be unaffected by placental growth, at least in the healthy samples from our study.
Emily S. Nichols, Sarah Al-Saoud, Barbra de Vrijer, Charles A. McKenzie, Roy Eagleson, Sandrine de Ribaupierre, Emma G. Duerden.A team of researchers has created the first 'multiome' atlas of brain cell development in the human cerebral cortex across six broad developmental time points from fetal development into adulthood, ...
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