Three weekly courses of betamethasone administered to pregnant baboons at 0.6, 0.65, and 0.7 of gestation alter fetal and maternal lymphocyte populations at 0.95 of gestation

Lifetime psychopathology in the offspring of parents with anxiety disorders: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

The offspring of parents with Anxiety Disorders (AD) are at high risk for different types of psychopathology, including AD. However, little is known about how parental anxiety during pregnancy and/or the postnatal period might result in alterations in behavior or neurodevelopmental changes in offspring. To examine the effect of parental AD on offspring behavior and neurodevelopment, we conducted a systematic review.

METHODS

Following PRISMA guidelines, we searched the Web of Science, PubMed, and PsycINFO databases.

RESULTS

Forty-seven articles met the inclusion criteria for the systematic review. Prenatal maternal anxiety is related to negative temperament, increased attention to fearful vocalizations, decreased alertness, and impaired psychomotor and cognitive development in early and middle childhood. AD during the postnatal period is associated with greater negative temperament, internalizing symptoms, and anxiety symptoms in early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence.

CONCLUSION

Our review is the first to demonstrate that prenatal and postnatal AD symptoms impact offspring. Future research should explore the mediating and moderating factors leading to the development of psychopathology in the offspring of parents with AD.

Performance of juvenile baboons on neuropsychological tests assessing associative learning, motivation and attention

The CANTAB (Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery), a system developed for human neuropsychological testing, has previously been used to assess cognitive function in two species of nonhuman primates, common marmoset monkeys and rhesus macaques. We describe the application of the system to the juvenile baboon, a nonhuman primate species offering specific investigative advantages. Juvenile baboons were trained and tested on a progressive ratio task to assess motivation, simple discrimination and simple reversal tasks to assess associative learning, and intra- and extra-dimensional set-shifting tasks to assess selective attention and attentional set-shifting, respectively. Study subjects were 8 juvenile baboons (Papio sp.), 4 females and 4 males aged 3.0+/-0.1 (mean+SEM) years and weight 8.2+/-0.4 kg. All baboons were easily trained, readily learned the neuropsychological tests and exhibited a stable performance. Applying a method such as the CANTAB has significant implications for expanding on the translational utility of the baboon in studies of neurodevelopment.

Feto-placental adaptations to maternal obesity in the baboon

Maternal obesity is present in 20-34% of pregnant women and has been associated with both intrauterine growth restriction and large-for-gestational age fetuses. While fetal and placental functions have been extensively studied in the baboon, no data are available on the effect of maternal obesity on placental structure and function in this species. We hypothesize that maternal obesity in the baboon is associated with a maternal inflammatory state and induces structural and functional changes in the placenta. The major findings of this study were: 1) decreased placental syncytiotrophoblast amplification factor, intact syncytiotrophoblast endoplasmic reticulum structure and decreased system A placental amino acid transport in obese animals; 2) fetal serum amino acid composition and mononuclear cells (PBMC) transcriptome were different in fetuses from obese compared with non-obese animals; and 3) maternal obesity in humans and baboons is similar in regard to increased placental and adipose tissue macrophage infiltration, increased CD14 expression in maternal PBMC and maternal hyperleptinemia. In summary, these data demonstrate that in obese baboons in the absence of increased fetal weight, placental and fetal phenotype are consistent with those described for large-for-gestational age human fetuses.

Trisomy 17 in a baboon (Papio hamadryas) with polydactyly, patent foramen ovale and pyelectasis

Trisomy 13 in humans is the third most common autosomal abnormality at birth, after trisomy 21 and trisomy 18. It has a reported incidence of between 1:5,000 and 1:30,000 live births. It is associated with multiple abnormalities, many of which shorten lifespan. We describe here the first reported case of a baboon (Papio hamadryas) with trisomy of chromosome 17, which is homologous to human chromosome 13. The trisomic infant was born to a consanguineous pair of baboons and had morphological characteristics similar to those observed in human trisomy 13, including bilateral polydactyly in the upper limbs, a patent foramen ovale, and pyelectasis. Molecular DNA analysis using human chromosome 13 markers was consistent with the affected infant inheriting two copies of chromosome 17 derived from the same parental chromosome. This trisomy was, therefore, due to either an error in meiosis II or the result of postzygotic nondisjunction. The parental origin, however, could not be determined.

Moderate maternal nutrient restriction, but not glucocorticoid administration, leads to placental morphological changes in the baboon (Papio sp.)

The aims of the present study were to describe the ontogeny of spatial relationships between placental components in baboons and to investigate alterations in these indices following (1) moderate maternal nutrient restriction and (2) administration of glucocorticoids to pregnant baboons. We investigated the effects of glucocorticoids since they have been shown to play a role in the altered fetal growth that accompanies maternal nutrient restriction. Glucocorticoids are also given to pregnant women who threaten premature labor to accelerate fetal lung maturation. A third aim was to compare our findings to those in similar conditions in human pregnancy. Volumetric placental development in the baboon was similar to that in the human, although growth of fetal capillaries was slower over the second half of gestation in baboon than in human placentas. Intervillous space (IVS) and villous star volumes were halved at the end of gestation compared to the middle of gestation, as described in the human placenta. When mothers were fed 70% of feed eaten by controls fed ad libitum, placental volumetric structure was unchanged at mid-gestation but was altered by the end of gestation when placental weight, but not fetal weight or length, was decreased. At the end of gestation villous volume and surface area, capillary surface area, and the villous isomorphic coefficient were all decreased, In contrast, IVS hydraulic diameter was increased. All parameters were similar in pregnancies with male and female fetuses, with the exception of fetal capillary volume, which was unchanged in pooled samples and those from male fetuses, but decreased in pregnancies with female fetuses. Glucocorticoid administration during the second half of gestation did not produce any changes in the measured indices of placental composition. In summary, these changes in placental structure, associated with maternal nutrient restriction, would all act to decrease placental transport of nutrients. The influence of MNR on villous capillarization depends on fetal gender.