PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Prenatal vitamin A deficiency tied to postnatal asthma

Smooth muscle abnormalities in developing airways may be overlooked factor in asthma

Prenatal vitamin A deficiency tied to postnatal asthma
2014-02-13
(Press-News.org) NEW YORK, NY (February 12, 2014) — A team of Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) investigators led by Wellington V. Cardoso, MD, PhD, has found the first direct evidence of a link between prenatal vitamin A deficiency and postnatal airway hyperresponsiveness, a hallmark of asthma. The study, conducted in mice, shows that short-term deficit of this essential vitamin while the lung is forming can cause profound changes in the smooth muscle that surrounds the airways, causing the adult lungs to respond to environmental or pharmacological stimuli with excessive narrowing of airways. The findings were published online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

"Researchers have long wondered what makes some people more susceptible than others to developing asthma symptoms when exposed to the same stimulus," said Dr. Cardoso, senior author, director of the new Columbia Center for Human Development, and a faculty member in the Division of Pulmonary Allergy Clinical Care Medicine. "Our study suggests that the presence of structural and functional abnormalities in the lungs due to vitamin A deficiency during development is an important and underappreciated factor in this susceptibility."

"More generally," Dr. Cardoso said, "our findings highlight a point often overlooked in adult medicine, which is that adverse fetal exposures that cause subtle changes in developing organs can have lifelong consequences."

Previous studies had shown that retinoic acid (RA)—the active metabolite of vitamin A—is essential for normal lung development. Until now, however, little was known about the impact of prenatal RA deficiency on postnatal airway function.

In an earlier study, Felicia Chen, MD, a member of Dr. Cardoso's team and first author of the current paper, identified a number of genes regulated by RA signaling in fetal lung development. Additional analysis showed the abnormal presence of genes involved in the formation of smooth muscle when RA signaling was disrupted. This finding prompted the researchers to take a closer look at the effects of vitamin A deficiency on the development of the smooth muscle that surrounds airways as they continued to form and branch.

The researchers used a mouse model in which they could control when and in what amount vitamin A would reach the developing fetus through maternal diet. "We timed the vitamin A deficiency to the middle of gestation, coinciding with the period of formation of the airway tree in the fetus," Dr. Cardoso said. Fetuses that were deprived of vitamin A were found to have excess smooth muscle in the airways, compared with controls.

In a subsequent experiment, the mice were again deprived of vitamin A during the same developmental stage, but returned to a normal diet after that stage and until adulthood. "When the animals reached adulthood, they appeared normal—that is, they had no problems typically associated with vitamin A deficiency," said Dr. Cardoso. "However, pulmonary function tests showed that their lungs were clearly not normal." When the mice were challenged with methacholine, a chemical that causes the airway to contract, their response was significantly more severe than that of controls.

Additional experiments determined that, during development, RA utilization largely occurs where the bronchial tubes branch to form new generations of airways. As each new tube is formed, it is surrounded by smooth muscle. According to the researchers, RA signaling temporarily inhibits the development of smooth muscle in airways in areas that are still branching, preventing precocious and excessive formation of these cells. "If an animal is deprived of vitamin A, RA signaling is disrupted and smooth muscle overdevelops," said Dr. Cardoso.

Finally, the study showed that the structural and functional changes in the airways occurred in the absence of inflammation. "This does not imply that inflammation is not an important component of pulmonary conditions characterized by hyperresponsiveness, such as asthma," said Dr. Cardoso. "But it reminds us of the multifactor origin of asthma and indicates an additional, structural component that cannot be overlooked.

The findings underscore the importance of sufficient vitamin A in the diet, which remains a significant challenge in developing countries. The study also has potential clinical implications in the developed world. "Most pregnant women in the U.S. are probably getting enough vitamin A in their diet, but it's possible that their babies are not making proper use of it," said Dr. Cardoso. "The body has a very complex system for processing vitamin A, and this system is prone to interference from outside factors, such as cigarette smoke and alcohol. We need to understand more precisely how early exposures of the fetus to adverse environmental factors can interfere with crucial developmental mechanisms, such as the one we found linking vitamin A to airway structure and function."

INFORMATION:

The paper is titled, "Prenatal retinoid deficiency leads to airway hyperresponsiveness in adult mice." The other contributors are Hector Marquez (Boston University), Youn-Kyung Kim (Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.), Jun Qian (CUMC), Fengzhi Shao (Boston University), Alan Fine (Boston University), William W. Cruikshank, (Boston University), and Loredana Quadro (Rutgers).

The authors declare no financial or other conflicts of interests.

This study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01 HL067129-09 and R01 HD057493).

The Columbia Center for Human Development (CCHD) is a research hub recently established by the Department of Medicine. The CCHD will support collaboration by basic and clinical scientists across the medical campus to promote research on the basic mechanisms involved in building organs and on the developmental basis of human disease. Integrating systems biology, genetic models, and genomic approaches, the center will investigate how environmental stressors influence developmental events that can result in increased risk of disease in childhood and adulthood. The center's ultimate goal is to advance understanding of developmental mechanisms and to identify novel strategies for reducing exposure to early developmental stressors and treating or lowering the incidence of disease. The center is directed by Wellington V. Cardoso, MD, PhD.

Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, preclinical, and clinical research; medical and health sciences education; and patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Columbia University Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and State and one of the largest faculty medical practices in the Northeast. For more information, visit cumc.columbia.edu or columbiadoctors.org.

[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Prenatal vitamin A deficiency tied to postnatal asthma

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Satellite video shows movement of major US winter storm

Satellite video shows movement of major US winter storm
2014-02-13
VIDEO: This animation of NOAA's GOES satellite data shows the progression of the major winter storm in the US south from Feb. 10 at 1815 UTC/1:15 p.m. EST to Feb. 12... Click here for more information. A new NASA video of NOAA's GOES satellite imagery shows three days of movement of the massive winter storm that stretches from the southern U.S. to the northeast. Visible and infrared imagery from NOAA's GOES-East or GOES-13 satellite from Feb. 10 at 1815 UTC/1:15 p.m. EST to ...

Could restless sleep cause widespread pain in older folks?

2014-02-13
Researchers in the U.K. report that non-restorative sleep is the strongest, independent predictor of widespread pain onset among adults over the age of 50. According to the study published in Arthritis & Rheumatology (formerly Arthritis & Rheumatism), a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), anxiety, memory impairment, and poor physical health among older adults may also increase the risk of developing widespread pain. Muscle, bone and nerve (musculoskeletal) pain is more prevalent as people age, with up to 80% of people 65 years of age and older experiencing ...

Sedation before nerve block increases risk, not pain relief

2014-02-13
New research suggests that sedating patients before a nerve block needed to diagnose or treat chronic pain increases costs, risks and unnecessary surgeries, and sedation does nothing to increase patient satisfaction or long-term pain control. "Sedation doesn't help, but it does add expense and risk," says study leader Steven P. Cohen, M.D., a professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "In some places, every patient is being sedated. Our research shows it should be used very sparingly." Nerve blocks, performed ...

Laboratory detective work points to potential therapy for rare, drug-resistant cancer

Laboratory detective work points to potential therapy for rare, drug-resistant cancer
2014-02-13
PITTSBURGH, Feb. 13, 2014 – University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) scientists have shown that old drugs might be able to do new tricks. By screening a library of FDA-approved anticancer drugs that previously wouldn't have been considered as a treatment for a rare type of cancer, UPCI scientists were surprised when they found several potential possibilities to try if the cancer becomes resistant to standard drug treatment. The discovery, which will be published in the February 15th issue of Cancer Research, demonstrates that high-throughput screening of already ...

Researchers find source of new lineage of immune cells

2014-02-12
The elusive progenitor cells that give rise to innate lymphoid cells—a recently discovered group of infection-fighting white blood cells—have been identified in fetal liver and adult bone marrow of mice, researchers from the University of Chicago report early online in the journal Nature. Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are among the first components of the immune system to confront certain pathogens. They have a critical function at mucosal barriers—locations such as the bowel or the lung—where the body comes in direct contact with the environment. Yet they went undetected ...

NREL report finds similar value in 2 CSP technologies

2014-02-12
Parabolic troughs and dry-cooled towers deliver similar value for concentrating solar power (CSP) plants, despite different solar profiles, a new report by the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory has found. The report, "Estimating the Performance and Economic Value of Multiple Concentrating Solar Power Technologies in a Production Cost Model," found that the value of delivered energy of dry-cooled tower and parabolic trough CSP plants, integrated with thermal energy storage, are quite similar. CSP with thermal energy storage is a unique source of ...

Double mastectomy halves death risk for women with BRCA-related breast cancer

2014-02-12
TORONTO, ON, February 11, 2014 — Women with BRCA-related breast cancer who have a double mastectomy are nearly 50 per cent less likely to die of breast cancer within 20 years of diagnosis compared to women who have a single mastectomy, according to a new study led by Women's College Hospital's Kelly Metcalfe. The findings, published in the British Medical Journal, suggest a double mastectomy may be an effective first-line treatment for women with early-stage breast cancer who carry a BRCA1 or BRCA2 genetic mutation. The BRCA1/2 genes belong to a class of genes that ...

Skin reactions during radiation therapy preventable

2014-02-12
Severe skin reactions during radiation therapy could be prevented by applying a thin transparent silicone dressing to the skin from the first day of treatment, clinical research from New Zealand shows. Although many skincare products have been tested in clinical trials over the years, until now none have been able to completely prevent severe skin reactions, says senior lecturer Dr Patries Herst of University of Otago Wellington's Department of Radiation Therapy. Dr Herst and her team of radiation therapists, oncology nurses and medical physicists have completed five ...

The genome of clonal raider ant provides a promising model to study social evolution and behavior

2014-02-12
Social insects, which usually have specialized behavioral groups (also called castes), are important models for social evolution and behavior researches. How division of labor in insect societies is regulated is an outstanding question and not fully understood yet. However, in many social insect species, experimental control over important factors that regulate division of labor, such as genotype and age, is limited. In a study published online on February 6th in Current Biology, researchers from Rockefeller University and BGI-Shenzhen have sequenced the genome of the queenless ...

Common infections linked to stroke in children; vaccines may reduce risk

2014-02-12
Common infections are associated with a significantly higher chance of stroke in children, but routine vaccinations may help decrease risk, according to preliminary research (abstract 39) presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2014. "The protective association of routine vaccination against childhood stroke provides a widely available means of prevention, and this information can easily be dispersed by pediatric healthcare providers," said Nancy Hills, Ph.D., M.B.A., lead researcher and assistant professor of neurology at the University ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Exercise as an anti-ageing intervention to avoid detrimental impact of mental fatigue

UMass Amherst Nursing Professor Emerita honored as ‘Living Legend’

New guidelines aim to improve cystic fibrosis screening

Picky eaters by day, buffet by night: Butterfly, moth diets sync to plant aromas

Pennington Biomedical’s Dr. Leanne Redman honored with the E. V. McCollum Award from the American Society for Nutrition

CCNY physicists uncover electronic interactions mediated via spin waves

Researchers’ 3D-printing formula may transform future of foam

Nurture more important than nature for robotic hand

Drug-delivering aptamers target leukemia stem cells for one-two knockout punch

New study finds that over 95% of sponsored influencer posts on Twitter were not disclosed

New sea grant report helps great lakes fish farmers navigate aquaculture regulations

Strain “trick” improves perovskite solar cells’ efficiency

How GPS helps older drivers stay on the roads

Estrogen and progesterone stimulate the body to make opioids

Dancing with the cells – how acoustically levitating a diamond led to a breakthrough in biotech automation

Machine learning helps construct an evolutionary timeline of bacteria

Cellular regulator of mRNA vaccine revealed... offering new therapeutic options

Animal behavioral diversity at risk in the face of declining biodiversity

Finding their way: GPS ignites independence in older adult drivers

Antibiotic resistance among key bacterial species plateaus over time

‘Some insects are declining but what’s happening to the other 99%?’

Powerful new software platform could reshape biomedical research by making data analysis more accessible

Revealing capillaries and cells in living organs with ultrasound

American College of Physicians awards $260,000 in grants to address equity challenges in obesity care

Researchers from MARE ULisboa discover that the European catfish, an invasive species in Portugal, has a prolonged breeding season, enhancing its invasive potential

Rakesh K. Jain, PhD, FAACR, honored with the 2025 AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research

Solar cells made of moon dust could power future space exploration

Deporting immigrants may further shrink the health care workforce

Border region emergency medical services in migrant emergency care

Resident physician intentions regarding unionization

[Press-News.org] Prenatal vitamin A deficiency tied to postnatal asthma
Smooth muscle abnormalities in developing airways may be overlooked factor in asthma