Atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) may play a role in the regulation of the changes of blood volume and vascular reactivity during pregnancy and when pregnancy is complicated by hypertension. Reports of plasma ANF levels during pregnancy are conflicting. We have prospectively studied plasma ANF levels during pregnancy in 25 women, ...

The relationship between zinc status and birth weight in uncomplicated pregnancies was studied in 59 nulliparous and 27 multiparous Chinese women with singleton pregnancies, delivered at term. Maternal and umbilical cord blood, maternal pubic hair and a segment of the umbilical cord were collected at delivery for analysis. The zinc ...

Normal pregnancy is associated with a poorly understood loss of vascular responsiveness to the pressor effects of infused angiotensin II. Since cellular cation metabolism appears to be a critical determinant of basal vascular tone and vascular reactivity, we have evaluated platelet ionized calcium, erythrocyte sodium, calcium and magnesium levels, and ...

Erythrocyte acetylcholinesterase and plasma cholinesterase was estimated in 50 normal pregnant women and 22 age matched normal non-pregnant women. Plasma cholinesterase was significantly decreased while erythrocyte cholinesterase was significantly increased during pregnancy. These changes may be related to altered haemodynamics and or other inter-related changes occurring in pregnancy.

Administration of zidovudine (ZDV) to pregnant women with human immunodeficiency virus infection may be of benefit to both the mother and the unborn child. Before testing this hypothesis, however, it is necessary to determine the transplacental transfer, fetal toxicity, and fetal accumulation of ZDV (if any) in a representative animal ...

1. Capillary permeability was determined by the disappearance rate of Evans Blue dye from plasma in healthy non-pregnant women, normal third-trimester primigravidae and primigravidae with pregnancy-induced hypertension. 2. Extracellular fluid volume was determined from the disappearance curves of injected mannitol in the same subjects and the plasma volume was measured ...

Plasma lactoferrin concentration, leucocyte count, serum prolactin concentration and storage iron status were studied in 313 women at various stages of pregnancy. The mean serum iron value, percentage saturation of transferrin and geometric mean serum ferritin concentrations decreased as pregnancy progressed. In contrast, the total iron-binding capacity showed a highly ...

This paper reports the changes in prolactin levels after 12 spontaneous and 52 induced pregnancies in 54 women with unambiguous hyperprolactinaemia (median plasma prolactin levels 67.5 ng/ml, range 40-400). Twenty-three of the patients showed radiological evidence of prolactinoma. The pregnancies were induced in 37 patients by bromocriptine, in nine by ...

Biochemical parameters of Ca homeostasis in fetal and maternal plasma and placental transfer of Ca, Pi and vitamin D metabolites were measured during pregnancy and at parturition. Control pigs and pigs with inherited pseudo-vitamin D-deficiency rickets, type I (PVDR), which are devoid of renal calcitriol production, were used. Although sows ...

Insemination confronts the female with paternally derived alloantigens and represents an immunological challenge preceding fertilization and implantation. Current evidence suggests a role for seminal plasma in regulating maternal immunity for insemination and pregnancy. In vitro seminal plasma has been shown to suppress T- and B-cell proliferation, neutrophil and macrophage phagocytic ...

The activity of the hypothalamo-pituitary adrenal axis was examined, by measuring the levels of immunoreactive (IR) corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) and cortisol (F) in human plasma during normal pregnancy and after delivery with or without complications and during normal postpartum using a specific RIA. The level of IR-CRH in ...

The sulfates of deoxycorticosterone (DOCS), corticosterone (BS), cortisone (ES) and cortisol (FS) were radioimmunoassayed in umbilical vein blood plasma samples collected in 97 fetuses between 19 and 32 weeks of gestation after extraction and chromatography on Sephadex LH 20 columns. While DOCS and BS displayed a decreasing pattern until 27-28 ...

In distinction to Braunstein and Horton (1985) who reported an increase in maternal 5 alpha-androstane-3 alpha, 17 beta-diol glucuronide (ADG) plasma levels during pregnancy, we observed a decrease of these levels from the 10th week of pregnancy; the decrease parallels the decrease in dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEA-S) concentration. As the latter ...

Reproductive performance, mammary gland weight and plasma concentrations of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) were examined in 18-day-pregnant mice from lines divergently selected on the basis of plasma IGF-1 concentration. Females of the high IGF-1 (H) line were 14% heavier than those of the low IGF-1 (L) line at mating but ...

Osmoregulation is altered in human gestation, body tonicity declining to a nadir early in pregnancy after which a new steady-state plasma osmolality is maintained until term. Development of precise, sensitive, and specific radioimmunoassays for arginine vasopressin (AVP), which permit clearer definitions of functional properties of the osmoregulatory system, have led ...

This chapter reviews alterations in volume and sodium homeostasis and osmoregulation during human pregnancy. Pregnant women undergo extracellular and plasma volume increases of 50-70%, and these changes accompany marked cumulative sodium retention shared by both mother and fetus. Pregnancy alters several factors with opposing effects on renal salt handling; however, ...

Human neutrophil elastase may be a major mediator of vascular damage and could contribute to the vascular damage seen in women with pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH). Elevated plasma levels of this substance will reflect neutrophil activation in vivo. To determine neutrophil activation in PIH, we studied 30 normal non-pregnant women, 32 ...

1. To investigate the mechanism of the fall in steady-state plasma phenytoin concentration relative to drug dose that occurs during pregnancy, single dose pharmacokinetic studies with stable isotope labelled phenytoin were carried out at different stages of pregnancy, and 2 to 4 months post-natally, in five epileptic women receiving regular ...

The presence of pregnancy-associated plasma protein A (PAPP-A) in non-pregnancy serum has been questioned with reference to insufficient specificity of the antibodies raised against this glycoprotein in some departments and used in immunoassay. For convenience, but also because of this unclear situation, many laboratories now use the only commercially available ...

Plasma osmolality and the levels of water, taurine, and total amino nitrogen (detected as ninhydrin-positive substances) have been measured in the cerebral cortices of nonpregnant and 19-day pregnant Wistar rats. Plasma osmolality fell by 11 mosmol/kg during pregnancy. Brain water content remained unaltered, but levels of taurine and ninhydrin-positive substances ...

Pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A) is a macromolecular glycoprotein produced by the trophoblast during pregnancy. Because the presence of PAPP-A in non-pregnant females is controversial, we re-evaluated our own radioimmunoassay technique for PAPP-A in the light of new observations about its immunological heterogeneity. Irrespective of the antibody (Geneva anti-PAPP-A or Dako ...

Results of a detailed study of the fibrinolytic enzyme system in pregnant and non-pregnant Nigerians are reported. It was observed that plasma plasminogen, alpha 1-antitrypsin, and alpha 2-macroglobulin were significantly increased in pregnancy (P less than 0.001) in comparison with the non-pregnant state. Fibrinogen was also increased but at a ...

In this study, we have determined the beta-endorphin concentrations in the plasma of 11 cases during the first 3 months of pregnancy, as well as the corresponding products of conception, collected by hysterosuction, during the course of voluntary abortion. The purpose of this study is to compare the values obtained ...

A decrease in plasma pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP) occurs during pregnancy in humans and experimental animals for reasons that are not known. To determine if mice also develop decreased plasma PLP concentrations during pregnancy, and if plasma PLP levels in pregnancy reflect tissue levels of PLP and pyridoxamine-5'-phosphate (PMP), we measured PLP ...

The maternal adrenal cortex seems to be involved in the adaptation to pregnancy. To study in detail adrenocortical secretion during pregnancy, we measured plasma aldosterone, corticosterone, 11-deoxycorticosterone, progesterone, 17-hydroxyprogesterone, 11-deoxycortisol, cortisol, and cortisone simultaneously by RIA after extraction and automated Sephadex LH-20 chromatography of 10 normal pregnant women longitudinally throughout ...

The concentration of plasma zinc and copper were determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry in 58 Nigerian women at various times in pregnancy and compared with those of 11 non-pregnant controls. The results showed 67.5% decrease in zinc and 100% increase in copper over non-pregnant levels at the end of pregnancy. ...

Plasma concentrations of secretin were measured at 4-week intervals throughout eight normal pregnancies and again twice postpartum, and in another six women during parturition and the early postpartum period. Comparisons were made with levels in 16 normal non-pregnant women. Plasma secretin concentrations increased during pregnancy with maximum levels at 36 ...

Metabolic clearance rates (MCR) of arginine vasopressin (AVP) were measured serially in five women starting before conception, during gestational weeks 7-8 (early), 22-24 (middle), and 36-38 (late pregnancy), and again 10-12 wk postpartum. Hormonal disposal rates were determined after water loading to suppress endogenous AVP release using a constant infusion ...

Pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A) is a human macromolecular glycoprotein produced by the trophoblast and possibly by the decidua. Its biological function is unknown, but in vitro, PAPP-A has been reported to be an inhibitor of granulocyte elastase. The present study was undertaken to see if pregnant cynomolgus monkeys could be ...

Amniotic fluid (AF) from 25 term pregnancies was analyzed for cyclo(His-Pro)-like immunoreactivity (CHP-LI). CHP-LI was detected in all AF samples and was indistinguishable from synthetic CHP by immunoidentity, by gel chromatography on Sephadex G-25, and by high pressure liquid chromatography. The mean concentration of CHP-LI in AF was 13,622 +/- ...

Serial blood samples were collected during pregnancy, after delivery and several months postnatally from 28 women. The blastogenic responses of lymphocytes to varying concentrations of phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) were tested using autologous plasma or fetal calf serum (FCS) to support the lymphocyte cultures. Using FCS, the blastogenic response decreased as pregnancy ...

Hereditary factor VII deficiency is very rare in pregnancy (one in 500,000). However, obstetricians should consider this diagnosis whenever the prothrombin time is prolonged while the activated partial thromboplastin time is normal. The factor VII level increases in normal pregnancy, but the effect of pregnancy upon the factor VII level ...

The plasma levels of protein S and protein C related antigens were determined in a group of normal pregnant Chinese women and a group of normal non-pregnant controls, using the sandwich technique of enzyme immunoassay with commercial kits. Compared with non-pregnant controls, plasma protein S levels were significantly lower during ...

The Atrial Natriuretic Factor discovered by De Bold in 1981, is currently being investigated by biochemists, physiologists and cardiologists. The physiological effects of this hormone closely resemble the normal changes occurring in pregnancy. Based on the experimental data published, the rise in the concentration of Atrial Natriuretic Factor in normal ...

Nine epileptic women were followed prospectively through pregnancy on a monthly basis. At each visit, total and free serum valproic acid levels and albumin levels were obtained. Assays were done by gas-liquid chromatography, and free drug was separated by ultrafiltration. Despite an upward dose adjustment in four patients, total valproic ...

Human fetal plasminogen was isolated from fetal cord blood obtained from full-term normal newborns. Two fetal plasminogen preparations were characterized by physical analyses and compared to adult human Glu-plasminogen. The protein concentration of plasminogen in each full-term fetal plasma was approximately 50% of the concentration found in adult plasma. The ...

High dietary protein intake is known to increase glomerular filtration rate in the nonpregnant state. The effects of dietary protein on renal function in human pregnancy are not well known. We studied 392 patients with singleton uncomplicated pregnancies at gestational ages of 7-40 weeks. Creatinine clearance was correlated with protein ...

The atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) and parameters related to renal sodium handling and renal function were evaluated in 92 normotensive pregnant women at different gestational ages (1st group: 7th-13th week, 2nd group: 14th-20th week; 3rd group: 21st-27th week; 4th group: 28th-34th week; 5th group: greater than 34th week), in 15 ...

Saliva aldosterone concentration was measured in samples collected at hourly intervals from healthy pregnant women (approximately 26 and 36 weeks gestation) who were going about their normal daily activities, and from some women hospitalized for disorders of pregnancy. In the healthy women diurnal saliva aldosterone fluctuated considerably, the highest values ...

Plasma concentrations of atrial natriuretic peptides (ANP) in female Wistar rats were measured by radioimmunoassay at oestrus, during pregnancy, during parturition and between 3 h and 4 days post partum. Concentrations of ANP in rats on days 10, 15 and 17 of pregnancy were not significantly different from those in ...

A 34-year-old woman with congenital factor XIII (FXIII) deficiency and multiple connective tissue tumours is reported. The subunit a of FXIII was totally absent in her plasma, platelets and histiocytes of breast fibroadenomas and considerably reduced in the monocytes (below 5%). The plasmatic level of subunit b was also reduced ...

We investigated the plasma levels of thrombin-antithrombin III complexes in women with uncomplicated pregnancy, patients with preeclampsia, gestational hypertension, and nonpregnant control subjects. In addition, we measured the coagulation inhibitors antithrombin III, protein C, and protein S. In normal pregnancy we observed a progressive increase in plasma thrombin-antithrombin III levels, ...

Peripheral plasma beta-endorphin (BEP) was measured in 10 pregnant monkeys during the third trimester (14-21 weeks gestation, term = 23.5 weeks). The study was intended to identify a late-pregnancy rise in BEP that has been reported in women. Levels rose in late pregnancy only in animals that delivered within a ...

Sixteen female, Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four equal groups. Two groups served as controls receiving low or regular concentrations of fluoride (F); animals in the other two groups were given drinking water, containing 100 parts/10(6) F, for 3 weeks either during or immediately before pregnancy. Thirteen days after delivery, ...

According to theory, for a drug of nonrestrictive, flow-limited clearance, a change during pregnancy of the unbound fraction (fu) of drug in maternal plasma should cause a change in steady-state unbound plasma drug concentration (Cu) in maternal plasma, which should also cause a change in fetal Cu. This theory was ...

The aim of this longitudinal study was to evaluate whether an increased thrombin generation takes place in normal pregnancy by determining fibronopeptide A plasma concentration in 24 women at three stages of gestation. The activity of the main blood clotting inhibitors, antithrombin III and protein C., and platelet agregability were ...

In order to establish diagnostic criteria for detection of abnormal oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in pregnant and non-pregnant Nigerian women, the test was performed in 25 non-pregnant and 60 pregnant non-diabetic women at various trimesters of pregnancy. The upper limit of normal plasma glucose was the same as that ...

Although it has been previously considered that blood fibrinolytic capacity is reduced during pregnancy, this has been disputed. Also the mechanisms underlying any change in fibrinolysis in pregnancy require clarification. We have therefore measured the plasma activity of tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) and inhibitors (t-PAi) and the concentration of the ...

In 20 infertile Japanese with polycystic ovary syndrome Shakuyaku-Kanzo-To was used to lower plasma testosterone levels and hence to induce pregnancy. The polycystic ovary was classified into two types; general cystic and peripheral cystic patterns. Plasma testosterone was decreased in 18/20 (90%) and 5/20 (25%) became pregnant. The plasma testosterone ...

Intestinal transit time increases and gastrointestinal incretin effect is reported to decrease in pregnancy. The release patterns of gastrointestinal hormones related to these functions were studied in eight women before and after ingestion of a standardized meal at 32-34 weeks gestation and at 4 days postpartum. Basal plasma motilin and ...