“Cocaine exposure during pregnancy leads to impulsivity in male, not ... - Science Centric” plus 4 more

Cocaine exposure during pregnancy leads to impulsivity in male, not ... - Science Centric
Surgeons closer to womb transplants - Ananova
IDF releases important new guidelines to improve the treatment of ... - Genetic Engineering News
Researchers Classify Molar Pregnancy - Med India
State, local teen pregnancy rates drop - Kinston Free Press

Cocaine exposure during pregnancy leads to impulsivity in male, not ... - Science Centric

Posted: 23 Oct 2009 04:21 AM PDT

Adult male monkeys exposed to cocaine while in the womb have poor impulse control and may be more vulnerable to drug abuse than female monkeys, even a decade or more after the exposure, according to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. The findings could lead to a better understanding of human drug abuse.

The study was presented yesterday at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago.

'This is the first time that so many different measures of impulsivity, which is considered a risk factor for drug abuse, have been looked at in the same group of animals,' said Lindsey Hamilton, lead investigator and a graduate student working in the laboratory of Michael Nader, Ph.D., a professor of physiology and pharmacology. 'We're looking for ways to predict which individuals are going to take drugs during their lives. It was very surprising to see that, even more than a decade after the prenatal cocaine exposure, the monkeys ended up being more impulsive and possibly more susceptible to drug use. It was particularly interesting, however, that this effect was only seen in the males. Something is either protecting the females from the effects of the cocaine exposure in the womb or making the males more susceptible to the lasting effects.'

For the study, researchers compared adult monkeys - both male and female - prenatally exposed to cocaine more than 15 years ago, to monkeys who were raised under similar conditions, but not exposed to cocaine during gestation. To determine if the animals differed in impulse control, they performed four tests. For one of the tests, the researchers gave the animals the choice between pushing a lever that delivered a single banana pellet reward immediately or a lever that delivered several banana pellets, but required the animals to wait up to five minutes before the reward was delivered.

'That's where we saw very large differences between the groups,' Hamilton said. 'The males who were exposed to cocaine in-utero had no patience or impulse control whatsoever.'

Those monkeys were less willing to wait for a larger food reward and preferred the immediately available, though much smaller, reward, indicating they were more impulsive than the adult male monkeys who had never been exposed to cocaine. There was, however, no difference in the preference of female monkeys prenatally exposed to cocaine and those never exposed to the drug.

After all of the impulsivity tests were administered, the researchers ranked each monkey from least to most impulsive and compared their average impulsivity score across the four tests. They found that the male, but not female, monkeys prenatally exposed to cocaine were more impulsive overall compared to control monkeys who weren't exposed.

'A lot of the differences we saw were subtle,' Hamilton said. 'We've done several different kinds of impulsivity tests and, on their own, each task resulted in only slight differences. But together, they paint a really clear picture of the effects of this early cocaine exposure. The more challenging the test, the more obvious the difference between the groups was.

'The fact that we are seeing differences at all is particularly striking because this is 15 years after the monkeys were exposed in the womb to cocaine,' she added. 'Fifteen years is the equivalent of middle age for monkeys. The fact that fairly large differences are still turning up is fascinating.'

Hamilton described the findings further, explaining that dopamine is a chemical in the brain that has been associated with drug abuse. When dopamine is released, it is broken down into homovanillic acid (HVA), which can be readily measured from a sample of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The researchers found that the less HVA present in a monkey's CSF, the less impulse control that monkey demonstrated. This finding is the first time a relationship between this dopamine metabolite and impulsivity has been documented, and indicates that there is a biological correlation associated with the alterations in impulse control observed in the monkeys exposed to cocaine in the womb.

Since decreased impulse control is a defining characteristic of cocaine addicts, Hamilton and her colleagues are currently working on an ongoing study to assess whether the monkeys that were prenatally exposed to cocaine will be more likely to self-administer drugs in adulthood.

So far, Hamilton said, it appears that the male monkeys exposed to cocaine in utero are more likely to self-administer the drug, even in low doses, than controls. Again, the difference is not being observed in the female monkeys.

'Our studies indicate that males may be more vulnerable to the long-lasting behavioural and neurobiological consequences of cocaine exposure during gestation than females, suggesting male children who were exposed to cocaine during their mothers' pregnancies may be predisposed to abuse drugs in adulthood,' Hamilton said.

It has been estimated that there are about 7.5 million children in the United States that were exposed to cocaine during gestation and between 30,000 and 160,000 infants born each year who have been prenatally exposed to cocaine, according to the National Pregnancy and Health Survey, the Department of Health and Human Services and previous research. The effects of cocaine use during pregnancy on children's development are not well established.

'Whether or not these children who were exposed to cocaine in the womb may be more vulnerable to drug use is a timely question,' Hamilton said, 'both because these children are now young adults, a time when a lot of drug experimentation occurs, and because cocaine abuse among young women of childbearing age is a growing problem in this country.'

It is challenging to study children exposed to cocaine in utero because there are many other factors that could affect their behaviour, such as less-than-optimal prenatal care, inadequate nutrition, and exposure to multiple types and doses of drugs during their mothers' pregnancies, Hamilton explained. By using a monkey model, researchers are able to control these variables and determine the long-term effects of prenatal cocaine exposure.

'We know that drug abusers are more impulsive than non drug users,' Hamilton said. 'But what is not as clear is whether people become drug abusers because they are impulsive or if people become impulsive because they're drug abusers. It's a bit of the chicken or the egg puzzle. We'll probably find that it's a little bit of both. The more we learn about the causes of drug abuse, the more likely that, one day, we'll be able to prevent it.'

Source: Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Centre

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Surgeons closer to womb transplants - Ananova

Posted: 22 Oct 2009 03:04 AM PDT

British scientists believe they are a step closer to carrying out the first-ever successful womb transplant.

They have worked out how to transplant a womb with a good blood supply which could mean it lasts long enough to carry a pregnancy to term.

A breakthrough in this area would offer an alternative to surrogacy or adoption for women whose own wombs have been damaged by diseases such as cervical cancer.

Around 15,000 women of childbearing age are currently living with a womb that does not work or were born without one.

Richard Smith, consultant gynaecological surgeon at Hammersmith Hospital in London, presented his latest research on rabbits at a US fertility conference. He said more than 50 women have approached him about transplants - all desperate for new wombs.

He and colleagues now need cash to move their research forward but have been denied grants by several medical research bodies. The team needs £25,000 for the next section of research and £250,000 to complete a set of studies.

The experts have set up a charity - Uterine Transplant UK - and believe the first successful human transplant could be carried out within two years if they raise enough funds.

Their most recent study involved five donor rabbits and five recipients, which were operated on at the Royal Veterinary College in London. The rabbits received a womb using a "vascular patch technique" which connected major blood vessels, including the aorta. Of the five, two rabbits lived to 10 months and examinations after death showed the transplants were a success.

Mr Smith's next step is to get rabbits pregnant through IVF to see how the womb copes, before moving on to larger animals.

Mr Smith said: "I think there are certain technical issues to be ironed out but I think the crux of how to carry out a successful graft that's properly vascularised - I think we have cracked that one."

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IDF releases important new guidelines to improve the treatment of ... - Genetic Engineering News

Posted: 22 Oct 2009 09:16 AM PDT

INTERVIEW: MITOCHONDRIAL GENE DEFECTS AND DISORDERS - Interview with Marni J. Falk, M.D., Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Human Genetics, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia ...MORE

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Researchers Classify Molar Pregnancy - Med India

Posted: 23 Oct 2009 08:13 PM PDT

Molar pregnancy is an abnormal form of pregnancy in which a fertilized but non-viable egg implants in the uterus, resulting in a hydatidiform mole. Hydatidiform moles, which occur in one in every 1000 pregnancies in the United States, increase the risk of persistent gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD) and choriocarcinoma, a malignant, rapidly-growing, and metastatic form of cancer. Molar pregnancies can have either partial or complete hydatidiform moles. Complete hydatidiform moles (CHMs) arise when an empty egg with no nucleus is fertilized by a normal sperm, and partial hydatidiform moles (PHMs) arise from a normal egg fertilized by two sperm.

CHMs, PHMs, and non-molar specimens (NMs) have different risks for persistent GTD, and thus differentiation is important for clinical treatment of patients. Morphological diagnosis results in high inter- and intra-observer variability; therefore, Murphy et al explore using genetic features to differentiate CHMs, PHMs, and NMs. They found that STR genotyping and p57 immunohistochemistry, by identifying the parental source of particular alleles, can distinguish CHMs, PHMs, and NMs and have developed an algorithm for the interpretation of STR data.

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State, local teen pregnancy rates drop - Kinston Free Press

Posted: 23 Oct 2009 06:26 PM PDT

The state's teenage pregnancy rate reached a 30-year low during 2008, according to data released by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services last week. Teenage girls had 217 fewer pregnancies, with 58.6 out of every 1,000 teen girls ages 15 to 19 becoming pregnant last year.

"North Carolina has been smart to leverage investments from the General Assembly and the Centers for Disease Control to bring proven pregnancy prevention strategies to North Carolina," Kay Phililps, executive director of the state's Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign, said. "This new data shows that we are headed in the right direction, and that we must keep pressing forward so that more communities can benefit from these tools."

Phillips said statewide implementation of evidence-based approaches to pregnancy prevention have contributed to the decrease.

The drop in teenage pregnancies wasn't just a statewide trend as both Lenoir and Greene counties saw decreased rates in 2008.

Lenoir County, which had the third-highest teenage pregnancy rate during 2007, is currently ranked 25th in the state. The county's rate fell from 101.9 in 2007 to 73.4 last year.

The Lenoir County Health Department offers young people confidential access to birth control methods.

"We make it very easy for people to get condoms; we have them at our registration area," Lisa Daniels, LCHD public health nurse, said. "We try to make it very easy for people to come in and get them."

Brenda Ham, the LCHD's family planning program manager, said family planning services are offered to females who are thinking about becoming sexually active.

"We do educate them and teach abstinence, but it's up to them," she said. "They need to be the ones who decide when it's the right time to have sex, we don't need to make that decision."

Ham said girls can receive birth control pills or shots free of charge. The LCHD also offers emergency contraception.

The Young Women's Outreach Center, based in Kinston, has been working in the community prevention of teen pregnancy. Executive director Joyce Clark said although she has seen many success stories, there is still work to be done.

"We know that education is key," she said. "Our main goal in Lenoir County is to reduce teen pregnancy by all means, through education and counseling support."

Clark said state budget cuts have limited funding to the program, but she is pursuing monies to get the center running at full capacity.

"Most of our programs are run by grant funding and we're working on that aspect now," she said. "Right now, we don't have enough funds or staff so it's hard to go and get the word out."

YWOC works with schools, churches and civic groups within the community to promote programs that teach teens about safe sex and abstinence. More than 3,000 teens were reached through YWOC from July 2007 through June 2008.

The center offers curriculum that helps improve self-esteem and open up dialogue between youth and parents.

"Parent participation is key," Clark said. "We can't do it without parent support."

In conjunction with "Let's Talk Month," a statewide campaign that began in 1986 as an education and awareness effort. YWOC will host a Let's Talk Quiz Bowl at Vernon Park Mall at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Clark said participants should call the center at 252-527-7844 ‎ to register. Teams must consist of at least one adult.

"We want to get teens talking to adults about important issues," she said.

One reason Clark said Lenoir County continues too rank high in the state for teen pregnancy is the lack of services for area teens.

"We don't have a lot of prevention services," she said. "Those we do have are only limited."

The Student Health Services portion of Greene County Health Care, located on the campus of Greene Central High School in Snow Hill, provides teen pregnancy prevention to both middle and high school students.

"We got into the classrooms and talk about abstinence and STD prevention," Linda Waters, assistant coordinator for the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program, said.

Greene County's teen pregnancy rate fell from 75.4 to 69.6 from 2007 to 2008.

Helen Hill, the center's director, said implementation of the both APPP and the Adolescent Parenting Program, which provides support to teen mothers, have proven outcomes.

"If these programs are implemented, they will show a reduction in teen pregnancy," she said.

Hill said the curriculum urged students to practice abstinence, but doesn't shy away from a comprehensive sexuality education.

Local school boards will be able to choose from evidence-based curricula that cover abstinence as well as comprehensive sexual health and relationship topics starting in the 2010-2011 school year. The passage of the Healthy Youth Act removes restrictions that limited the number of evidence-based curricula.

"Keeping these programs strong — and offering them in more communities — is crucial to maintaining a positive trend in our pregnancy rates," Phillips said. "We must not let these programs get lost as state and local dollars get harder and harder to come by."

Sarah Campbell can be reached at 252-559-1076 or scampbell@freedomenc.com.

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