Journal
PREGNANCY HYPERTENSION-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF WOMENS CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH
Volume 12, Issue -, Pages 23-28Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.preghy.2018.02.004
Keywords
Functional neuroimaging; Case-control studies; Magnetic resonance imaging; Human pregnancy
Funding
- Harry Botterell Foundation for the Neurological Sciences Award
- Kingston General Hospital Foundation
- Canada Research Chairs Program
- Postdoctoral Training Award - Estagio Senior [99999.002771/2015-02]
- CAPES, Brazil
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Background: Individuals (PE-F1s) born from preeclampsia (PE)-complicated pregnancies have elevated risks for cognitive impairment. Intervals of disturbed maternal plasma angiokines precede clinical signs of PE. We hypothesized pan-blastocyst dysregulation of angiokines underlies altered PE-F1 brain vascular and neurological development. This could alter brain functional connectivity (FC) patterns at rest. Materials and methods: Resting-state functional MRI datasets of ten, matched child pairs (5 boys and 5 girls aged 7-10 years of age) from PE or control pregnancies were available for study. Seed-based analysis and independent component analysis (ICA) methodologies were used to assess whether differences in resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) were present between PE-F1s and controls. Bilateral amygdala, bilateral hippocampus, and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) were selected as regions of interest (ROI) for the seed-based analysis based on previous imaging differences that we reported in this set of children. Results: Compared to controls, PE-F1 children had increased rs-FC between the right amygdala and left frontal pole, the left amygdala and bilateral frontal pole, and the MPFC and precuneus. PE-F1 children additionally had decreased rs-FC between the MPFC and the left occipital fusiform gyrus compared to controls. Conclusion: These are the first reported rs-FC data for PE-F1s of any age. They suggest that PE alters FC during human fetal brain development. Altered FC may contribute to the behavioural and neurological alterations reported in PE-F1s. Longitudinal MRI studies with larger sample sizes are required to confirm these novel findings.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available