Thyroid hormone deficiencies in early pregnancy can cause locomotor underdevelopment in the child, according to research from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet. The results bring new insights into brain development and could affect routine pregnancy testing.
Children born with thyroid hormone deficiencies (hypothyreosis) are in danger of mental and locomotor underdevelopment if they remain untreated. However, scientists are unsure about what causes the damage and about how much attention should be given to the mother’s hormone levels during pregnancy. In Sweden, all newborn babies, but not all pregnant women, are tested for hypothyreosis.
Scientists at Karolinska Institutet have now shown in experiments on mice that both the mother’s and the child’s thyroid hormone are necessary for proper locomotor development. Hormone deficiencies during early pregnancy, when the mother is the only source of the hormone, produced locomotor disorders in the mice that persisted into adulthood, at which point they were beyond treatment.
“Hypothyreosis is easy to treat if it’s discovered,” says Professor Björn Vennström, who has led the study. “The results provide fresh support for those who advocate the more thorough monitoring of pregnant women.”
The scientists were also able to show that the cause of the locomotor disorders was an abnormal development of specific nerve cells in the motor cortex and cerebellum. The findings thus give new and important insights into the part played by thyroid hormone in brain development.
The study used gene modified mice with a mutation in one of the two receptors for thyroid hormone. The discoveries mean that patients with mutations of the same receptor can, for the first time, be identified and treated.
Source: Karolinska Institutet
Related stories:
Looking for the Founatain of Youth? Cut your calories, research suggests
Want to slow the signs of aging and live longer? New Saint Louis University research suggests cutting back on calories could be a promising strategy.
Blood vessel inhibitor shows promise against metastatic thyroid cancer
Thyroid cancer that has spread to distant sites has a poor prognosis, but an experimental drug that inhibits tumor blood vessel formation can slow disease progression in some patients, a research team led by investigators from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports in the July 3rd edition of
The New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers seek to focus attention upon the distributors of human growth hormone
A great deal of attention has been paid to the use of growth hormone (hGH) by elite athletes and a few vocal entertainers. But underlying this tip of the iceberg is a $2 billion dollar a year business, likely involving hundreds of thousands of regular people, and promoted by anti-aging and age-management clinics and compounding pharmacies who aggressively market and sell growth hormone with the claim that it has anti-aging or athletic enhancing properties.
Low thyroid function common in chronic kidney disease
Many patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have mild reductions in thyroid function, or subclinical hypothyroidism—a condition that becomes more common as kidney function declines, according to a study in the September 2008 issue of Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN).
Low blood levels of vitamin D may be associated with depression in older adults
Older adults with low blood levels of vitamin D and high blood levels of a hormone secreted by the parathyroid glands may have a higher risk of depression, according to a report in the May issue of
Archives of General Psychiatry.
Thyrotropin levels may be associated with coronary heart disease mortality in women
Women with increasing levels of thyrotropin within the normal range appear to have a higher risk of fatal coronary heart disease, according to a report in the April 28 issue of
Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Twin findings raise hopes of improved anemia treatments
A new understanding of how red blood cell production is controlled could lead to improvements in the treatment of the blood disorder anaemia, according to West Australian medical researchers.
New findings on emerging contaminants
American and Canadian scientists are finding that out of sight, out of mind can no longer be the approach we take to the chemicals in our waters. Substances that we use everyday are turning up in our lakes, rivers and ocean, where they can impact aquatic life and possibly ourselves.