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

Placenta reflects arsenic exposure in pregnant women and fetuses, Dartmouth study shows

2015-04-02
(Press-News.org) HANOVER, N.H. - The placenta can be used to reliably measure arsenic exposure in pregnant women and how much of the toxic metal is transferred to their fetuses, a Dartmouth College study shows.

The study, the largest ever analysis of household drinking water arsenic and the mother-to-fetus connection, appears in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology. A PDF is available on request.

Recent studies have used the placenta to identify early effects of exposure to lead, mercury, cadmium and other metals. Previous studies also have shown that arsenic readily crosses the placenta and may adversely affect fetal development. But little is known about arsenic concentrations in the placenta and their relation to maternal and infant exposure, particularly at low levels.

The Dartmouth researchers measured total arsenic concentrations in placental samples from 652 women. They compared these data to urinary arsenic collected from the women during pregnancy, along with post-partum arsenic in toenail clippings from the women and their infants. The researchers also examined associations between placental arsenic and the women's arsenic exposure from private well water and rice consumption. Lastly, they computed the ratio of maternal-to-infant toenail concentrations of arsenic, which is an indicator of maternal-infant arsenic transfer.

The results showed that placenta arsenic concentrations were positively associated with arsenic levels in maternal urine, maternal and infant toenails and household drinking water. Lower ratios of maternal-to-infant toenail arsenic concentrations, which indicate greater placental transfer, were observed at high placental arsenic concentrations.

"Our findings show placental arsenic concentrations reflect both maternal and fetal biomarker concentrations," says lead author Tracy Punshon, a research assistant professor of biological sciences. "They support placenta as a potentially useful biomarker of arsenic exposure, particularly in studies of placental function. They suggest greater maternal-fetal transfer when placental arsenic is high."

INFORMATION:

Assistant Professor Tracy Punshon is available to comment at Tracy.Punshon@dartmouth.edu.

The study was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Broadcast studios: Dartmouth has TV and radio studios available for interviews. For more information, visit: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~opa/radio-tv-studios/



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

NYU researchers dramatically improve ART adherence for minority PHLA

2015-04-02
Up to 60% of persons living with HIV (PLHA) in the U.S. are neither taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) nor well engaged in HIV primary care, with racial/ethnic minorities more likely to experience barriers to engagement along this HIV continuum of care than their White counterparts. In fact, only 30% of persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) in the United States have achieved "viral suppression," the ultimate goal of HIV treatment. Indeed, PLHA poorly engaged in HIV primary care and/or who are not on ART are at elevated risk for a host of poor outcomes, including more frequent ...

Raising retirement age would widen benefit disparities for disadvantaged

2015-04-02
The age to receive full Social Security benefits should be closer to 70, according to a report published in the journal Daedalus. "We're living longer and healthier than ever before, but the statutory age of retirement for receiving Social Security benefits doesn't reflect that," says lead author S. Jay Olshansky, professor of epidemiology in the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. When Social Security was enacted in 1935, the age of full retirement was set at 65. Back then, a 25-year-old had a 62.4 percent chance of living to retirement age, and ...

Older people at higher risk of emergency cancer diagnosis

2015-04-02
People over 60 are at higher risk of being diagnosed with lung or bowel cancer as an emergency in hospital than younger people, according to a Cancer Research UK-supported report *, published today by BMJ Open (Thursday). The researchers also found that women and less affluent people are at higher risk of an emergency lung cancer diagnosis. While being unmarried, divorced or widowed was associated with having bowel cancer diagnosed as an emergency. The Cancer Research UK review looked at over 20 studies featuring more than 687,000 lung or bowel cancer cases, of which ...

MA health reform did not lower preventable hospitalizations or reduce racial disparities

2015-04-02
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - In the first three years after Massachusetts implemented its 2006 health care reform, which reduced the number of uninsured people in the state by roughly half, the rate of preventable hospitalizations did not decline compared with states with similar populations that did not expand health insurance coverage. Nor did the reform reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the rate of such hospitalizations. Those are some of the chief findings of a new study by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the Boston University School of Medicine, published today ...

Low T not just in males: Testosterone, atherosclerosis and obesity may be linked in females

2015-04-02
While testosterone replacement therapies may be controversial in males, new research in The FASEB Journal may extend this controversy to females too. That's because research involving mice, appearing in the April 2015 issue, suggests that there is an association between low levels of androgens (which includes testosterone), and atherosclerosis and obesity in females. "We hope that our study will contribute to intensified research efforts on the definition of androgen deficiency in women (e.g. which levels of androgens in the blood should be considered too low?), the ...

Pathway known to suppress tumors may also reduce burden of neurodegenerative diseases

2015-04-02
A molecular pathway known to suppress tumors appears to also be a major player in clearing cells of damaged proteins implicated in neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS and certain types of dementia, new research in roundworms and human cells suggests. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers, publishing April 2 in the journal PLOS Biology, say their findings shed new light on how a cell's protein quality control mechanism works - and how this system could be harnessed one day to combat diseases caused by a buildup of proteins in cells. To function ...

Astronomers watch unfolding saga of massive star formation

2015-04-02
A pair of images of a young star, made 18 years apart, has revealed a dramatic difference that is providing astronomers with a unique, "real-time" look at how massive stars develop in the earliest stages of their formation. The astronomers used the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to study a massive young star called W75N(B)-VLA 2, some 4200 light-years from Earth. They compared an image made in 2014 with an earlier VLA image from 1996. "The comparison is remarkable," said Carlos Carrasco-Gonzalez of the Center of Radioastronomy and ...

HIV spreads like internet malware and should be treated earlier

2015-04-02
A new model for HIV progression finds that it spreads in a similar way to some computer worms and predicts that early treatment is key to staving off AIDS. HIV specialists and network security experts at UCL noticed that the spread of HIV through the body using two methods - via the bloodstream and directly between cells - was similar to how some computer worms spread through both the internet and local networks respectively to infect as many computers as possible. They worked together to create a model for this 'hybrid spreading', which accurately predicted patients' ...

Age-discrimination during cell division maintains the 'stem' in stem cells

2015-04-02
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (April 2, 2015) - A team of Whitehead Institute scientists has discovered that during division, stem cells distinguish between old and young mitochondria and allocate them disproportionately between daughter cells. As a result, the daughter cell destined to remain a stem cell receives predominantly young mitochondria, while the cell meant to differentiate into another cell type carries with it a higher compliment of the aged organelles. This asymmetric apportioning of cellular contents may represent a mechanism through which stem cells prevent the accumulation ...

DNA can't explain all inherited biological traits, research shows

2015-04-02
Characteristics passed between generations are not decided solely by DNA, but can be brought about by other material in cells, new research shows. Scientists studied proteins found in cells, known as histones, which are not part of the genetic code, but act as spools around which DNA is wound. Histones are known to control whether or not genes are switched on. Researchers found that naturally occurring changes to these proteins, which affect how they control genes, can be sustained from one generation to the next and so influence which traits are passed on. The finding ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Enhancing heat transfer using the turbulent flow of viscoelastic fluids

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

[Press-News.org] Placenta reflects arsenic exposure in pregnant women and fetuses, Dartmouth study shows