in utero

Examples of in utero in the following topics:

• Developmental Changes in Fluids

  • Fetal development affects an individual's health in later life.
  • Hormonal, renal, and behavioral control of body fluids function to some extent in utero.
  • In utero behavioral changes, such as fetal swallowing, have been suggested to be functional early in development in response to dipsogens.
  • It is well established that central cholinergic mechanisms are critical in the regulation of cardiovascular responses and maintenance of body fluid homeostasis in adults.
  • However, in utero development of brain cholinergic mechanisms in the regulation of the hypothalamic neuropeptides is largely unknown.

• Passive Immunization

  • The recipient will only temporarily benefit from passive immunity for as long as the antibodies persist in their circulation.This type of immunity is short acting, and is typically seen in cases where a patient needs immediate protection from a foreign body and cannot form antibodies quickly enough independently.
  • Passive immunity can also be acquired naturally by the fetus due to the transfer of antibodies by the maternal circulation in utero through the placenta around the third month of gestation.
  • Immunity in newborn babies is only temporary and starts to decrease after the first few weeks, or months.
  • The thick, yellowish milk (colostrum) that is produced during the first few days after birth is particularly rich in antibodies.

• Teratogens

  • A teratogen is a compound that permanently deforms the function or structure of a developing embryo or fetus in utero.
  • Alcohol use in pregnancy may result in fetal alcohol ayndrome (FAS).
  • FAS occurs in approximately 1% of all births.
  • Thalidomide (a sedative previously marketed in Europe to prevent morning sickness) is a classic teratogen that caused limb defects in babies born to women who took this drug in the 1960s.
  • When consumed in pregnancy, it can result in mothers giving birth to children with fetal alcohol syndrome.

• Lethal Inheritance Patterns

  • Because the gene is essential, these individuals might fail to develop past fertilization, die in utero, or die later in life, depending on what life stage requires this gene.
  • An inheritance pattern in which an allele is only lethal in the homozygous form and in which the heterozygote may be normal or have some altered non-lethal phenotype is referred to as recessive lethal.
  • For instance, the recessive lethal Curly allele in Drosophila affects wing shape in the heterozygote form, but is lethal in the homozygote.
  • Individuals with mutations that result in dominant lethal alleles fail to survive even in the heterozygote form.
  • An example of this in humans is Huntington's disease in which the nervous system gradually wastes away .

• Polycystic Kidney Disease

  • Gene PKD-1 is located on chromosome 16, and codes for a protein involved in regulation of cell cycle and intracellular calcium transport in epithelial cells; it is responsible for 85% of the cases of ADPKD.
  • PKD3 recently appeared in research papers as a postulated 3rd gene.
  • Fewer than 10% of cases of ADPKD appear in non-ADPKD families.
  • Cyst formation begins in utero from any point along the nephron, although fewer than 5% of nephrons are thought to be involved.
  • Unfortunately, resulting hypoplasia results in a 30% death rate in neonates with ARPKD.

• Listeriosis

  • Listeriosis has a low incidence in humans and occurs in pregnant women, newborn infants, elderly patients, and patients who are immunocompromised.
  • This involves a bacterial protein "internalin" which attaches to a protein on the intestinal cell membrane "cadherin. " These adhesion molecules are also to be found in two other unusually tough barriers in humans - the blood-brain barrier and the feto-placental barrier, and this may explain the apparent affinity that Listeria has for causing meningitis and affecting babies in-utero.
  • Listeria monocytogenes is ubiquitous in the environment.
  • In the advent of listeriosis, bacteremia should be treated for two weeks, meningitis for three weeks, and brain abscess for at least six weeks.

• X-Inactivation

  • The presence of extra X chromosomes in a cell is compensated for by X-inactivation in which all but one X chromosome are silenced.
  • Early in development, when female mammalian embryos consist of just a few thousand cells (relative to trillions in the newborn), one X chromosome in each cell inactivates by tightly condensing into a quiescent (dormant) structure called a Barr body.
  • If the X chromosome is absent altogether, the individual will not develop in utero.
  • Several errors in sex chromosome number have been characterized.
  • This can be seen as several Barr bodies in each cell nucleus.

• Erythroblastosis Fetalis (Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn)

  • In terms of natural selection, she was selected against.
  • Among these antibodies are some which attack the red blood cells in the fetal circulation.
  • If a mother is exposed to a foreign antigen and produces the antibody type IgG (as opposed to IgM which does not cross the placenta), the IgG will target the antigen, if present in the fetus, and may affect it in-utero and persist after delivery.
  • Another sensitization model can occur in women of blood type O.
  • The immune response to A and B antigens, that are widespread in the environment, usually leads to the production of IgM anti-A and IgM anti-B antibodies early in life.

• Adjustments of the Infant at Birth

  • With the first breaths, there is a fall in pulmonary vascular resistance and an increase in the surface area available for gas exchange.
  • Oxygenated blood now stimulates constriction of the umbilical arteries resulting in a reduction in placental blood flow.
  • This change in the pattern of flow results in a drop in blood flow across the ductus arteriosus.
  • During this transition, some types of congenital heart diseases that were not symptomatic in utero during fetal circulation will present with cyanosis or respiratory signs.
  • Glycogen synthesis in the liver and muscle begins in the late second trimester of pregnancy, and storage is completed in the third trimester.

• Brain Imaging Techniques

  • Physicians who specialize in the performance and interpretation of neuroimaging in the clinical setting are known as neuroradiologists.
  • It is useful in the diagnosis of seizures and other medical problems that involve an overabundance or lack of activity in certain parts of the brain.
  • Positron emission tomography (PET) scans measure levels of the sugar glucose in the brain in order to illustrate where neural firing is taking place.
  • In addition, PET scans are costly and invasive, making their use limited.
  • MRI scans are noninvasive, pose little health risk, and can be used on infants and in utero, providing a consistent mode of imaging across the development spectrum.