human_ontogenetics最新文献

In autumn 2007, the Editorial Office of human_ontogenetics received the first manuscripts for publication and made the first experiences with the editorial and production process. Since then, the start of our new journal was very successful: We received a number of manuscripts and many more requests. Some of the articles published during the last months in human_ontogenetics were downloaded by our readers more than 1,000 times.

Against the background of one year of human_ontogenetics, we would like to briefly summarize the advantages of publishing in human_ontogenetics, to stimulate even more potential authors from the entire field of human life sciences to submit their papers. In essence, we see at least the following five major reasons for publishing papers related to the development of human beings in our journal.

We are living in an aging world. Never before in Germany, in Europe, in the whole world so many people could reach such an advanced age. There is an enormous extension of the lifespan in all European countries, but also in all other countries of the world. This is due to the progress of modern medicine, the improvement of the socio-economic living conditions, and it is also infl uenced by life style. But it is not only important to add years to life, but also to add life to years. Life expectancy does not only mean length of life, but also quality of life.

The perinatal phase is crucial for the development of the infant. The first priming of the immune system occurs before birth, and this process is influenced by the intrauterine environment. One factor of this priming seems to be the fetal nutrition, which mainly depends on maternal diet. After birth, breastfeeding offers optimal alimentation. Allergy prevalence has increased during the last decades. As a method of primary allergy prevention, exclusive breastfeeding for a period of 4 to 6 months is recommended. However, published data on the subject is conflicting. Therefore, this review article will focus on maternal nutrition during breastfeeding with regard to allergy development. Cytokine levels in breast milk seem to depend on maternal state of atopy as well as on her nutrition. Breast milk components can, on the other hand, infl uence immune response of the infant. Differences between recent studies concerning composition of breast milk regarding allergen content, immune mediators and nutrients are discussed and the role of early nutrition on long-term development in the offspring is shown. To summarize – albeit some confl icting results are published – a healthy and balanced maternal nutrition, rich in fresh fruit and vegetables, milk products, nuts or oily fish, and breastfeeding of the infant seems to be the best way of childhood atopy prevention.

During critical developmental periods in early life, altered environmental conditions can lead to pre- and early postnatally acquired, life-long malfunctions and subsequent diseases (Perinatal Programming). Avoiding unfavourable conditions during early development may thus open possibilities of primary prevention.

At the beginning of the 21^st century, demographic aging and increasing overweight prevalences are two major problems nearly world-wide. Interestingly, during the second half of the last century, an outstanding “ecologic experiment” has taken place in central Europe, where Germany was divided for four decades into two parts with differing political, economic, social and medical systems, and different approaches towards prevention, especially in early life. Two examples of preventive measures introduced and realized in East Germany and East Berlin until the German reunification were intense breastfeeding promotion and the so-called “Baby-Year”, which meant that a mother could stay at home receiving her full salaries for one year after giving birth. Possible outcomes of these measures of primary prevention with effect on demographic aging and overweight risk in the people will be outlined in this essay.

Before the introduction of modern medicine, the afterbirth (placenta) has been believed to host many secrets and even parts of the newborn baby's soul. Placenta and fetus are closely linked in the so-called feto-placental unit. Therefore, the placenta contains information on intrauterine fetal life. This information can not be obtained from the baby since tissue can not be examined biologically without injury. We are currently conducting a multicenter study to predict the probability of later disease inflicted by an adverse intrauterine environment. An early prediction of risk of future diseases would help to initiate early preventive measures.

Preeclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) account for a major part of perinatal and maternal morbidity worldwide and are associated with increased later cardiovascular risk. Both diseases are characterized by a shallow endovascular trophoblast invasion causing a disturbed placental development and are considered as syndromes with numerous vascular, metabolic, immunological and clinical alterations. Their etiology and pathophysiological consequences remain mostly unresolved. Beside others one hypothesis favors oxidative stress as a relevant pathophysiological factor. Oxidative stress as an imbalance between free radicals and the capacity of protective antioxidant systems is thought to be a potent promoter of maternal vascular dysfunction and endothelial damage. As both pregnancy complications furthermore are associated with an increased later cardiovascular risk for mother and child, the pathobiology mediated by oxidative stress may have general and long-term devastating influence on vascular function.

Disturbed trophoblast invasion and placental development cause an abnormal uterine perfusion in mid-pregnancy, which is easily detectable by abdominal ultrasound and identifies women at risk for the mentioned pregnancy complications antedating their clinical manifestation. We showed that an abnormal uterine perfusion in pregnancy is characterized by a decreased maternal plasma antioxidant capacity. Even though this reduction is not related to the clinical outcome of these high-risk pregnancies, oxidative stress and uterine perfusion are clearly pathophysiologically connected.

In this article, we focus on links between oxidative stress and uterine perfusion and possible implications for the early detection of patients at risk for preeclampsia and IUGR. This might improve our understanding of these relationships, and may become of beneficial impact for the short- and long-term outcome in affected mothers and their children.