Purdue receives $1 million USDA grants for sustainable agriculture projects

Grant and Award Announcement

PURDUE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: PURDUE UNIVERSITY AGRICULTURAL ECONOMISTS ARE COLLABORATING WITH MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY TO DEVELOP MORE RESILIENT FOOD SYSTEMS FOR COPING WITH MULTIPLE DISASTERS, SUCH AS WHEN FLOODING OCCURS DURING A PANDEMIC. HEAVY RAIN PONDED IN THIS TIPPECANOE COUNTY, INDIANA, CORNFIELD IN AUGUST 2021. view more 

CREDIT: PURDUE AGRICULTURAL COMMUNICATIONS PHOTO/TOM CAMPBELL

Purdue receives $1 million USDA grants for sustainable agriculture projects

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University has received two grants of $1 million each from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture for five-year projects to enhance sustainable agricultural systems.

One grant is part of a $10 million project led by Michigan State University’s Brent Ross to develop more resilient food systems for coping with multiple disasters, including pandemics, tornadoes and flooding. The other grant is part of a $10 million project led by Clemson University’s Raghupathy Karthikeyan to develop a controlled-environment agriculture platform for cultivating salt-tolerant food crops using saline irrigation water.

The grants are in addition to two other $10 million grants to Purdue that NIFA announced earlier this year as part of a $70 million investment in sustainable agriculture that integrate research, education and extension efforts. One of those grants supports work to improve the economic resilience and sustainability of Eastern U.S. forests. The other grant aims to enhance Midwestern seafood production and consumption.

Leading the extension portion of the MSU project is Purdue’s Maria Marshall, the Jim and Lois Ackerman Professor of Agricultural Economics. Heading the education program development and evaluation portions of the Clemson project is Purdue’s Rama Radhakrishna, professor and head of the Department of Agricultural Sciences Education and Communication.

“This grant is about looking at sustained multiple shocks,” said Marshall, who specializes in disaster recovery for small and family businesses and farms. When she began researching disruptive shocks to families and businesses in 2009, disasters came less frequently. But now they occur continually, and sometimes more than one at the same time.

“You have climate change that is already affecting different parts of the supply chain,” Marshall said. “Now you add COVID on top of that. And then you add, for example, a train derailment. It’s one thing on top of another on top of another.”

Marshall and Renee Wiatt, family business management specialist in agricultural economics, will develop and coordinate the curriculum for farmers that they will deploy as a pilot program in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. Serving on the advisory board for this project is Jayson Lusk, Distinguished Professor and head of the Department of Agricultural Economics.

“We will help translate research at the farm level, and then we will train extension professionals on this curriculum,” said Marshall, who also directs the North Central Regional Center for Rural Developmentand the Purdue Initiative for Family Firms.

The long-term goal of the Clemson project is to develop a method for hydroponic cultivation of high-value crops using saline irrigation water in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida.

“The concept here is how we can grow crops with reduced water intake,” Radhakrishna said. This is important, he noted, because even though coastal areas have access to abundant water, all of it is salty. And globally, agriculture accounts for about 70% of freshwater withdrawals, also making it the leading cause of water problems in many regions.

Radhakrishna will help design courses and develop curricula for high school and university students about the value and impact of using the untapped resource of saline water for agriculture.

He also will conduct a needs assessment and stakeholder analysis to identify potential issues the research team may need to address that would hinder the adoption of safe, productive and sustainable saline irrigation water in coastal areas. In the project’s final stages, Radhakrishna will assess the impact of the project on students, farmers and other key stakeholders in the targeted coastal regions.

Purdue University is collaborating with Clemson University to advance the use of a controlled-environment platform for cultivating salt-tolerant food crops, including tomatoes, using saline irrigation water.

CREDIT

Purdue Agricultural Communications photo/Tom Campbell

Light pollution may extend mosquitoes’ biting season

Study suggests light at night disrupts insects’ winter dormancy

Peer-Reviewed Publication

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study’s finding that urban light pollution may disrupt the winter dormancy period for mosquitoes that transmit West Nile virus could be considered both good news and bad news.

The good news is that the disease-carrying pests may not survive the winter if their plans to fatten up are foiled. The bad news is their dormancy period, known as diapause, may simply be delayed – meaning they’re biting humans and animals longer into the fall.

“We see the highest levels of West Nile virus transmission in the late summer and early fall in Ohio. If you have mosquitoes postponing or delaying diapause and continuing to be active longer in the year, that’s at a time when the mosquitoes are most likely to be infected with West Nile virus and people could be at greatest risk of contracting it,” said Megan Meuti, senior author of the study and an assistant professor of entomology at The Ohio State University.

This study and earlier findings by Meuti and her colleagues are among the first to show that artificial light at night could have a significant impact on mosquito behavior – including effects that aren’t necessarily predictable.

“We’re finding that the same urban light at night can have very different effects under different seasonal contexts,” she said.

Meuti conducted the study with first author Matthew Wolkoff and Lydia Fyie, both PhD candidates in entomology at Ohio State. The research was published recently in the journal Insects.

Diapause for female Northern house mosquitoes (Culex pipiens) is not quite a winter slumber, but rather a period of dormancy when the insects live in caves, culverts, sheds and other semi-protected locations. Prior to winter’s arrival, mosquitoes convert sugary sources, such as plant nectar, into fat. As days get longer, females begin foraging for blood meals to enable egg production. Some get infected with West Nile virus by feeding on infected birds, and later transmit the virus when they feed on people, horses and other mammals.

This study builds upon two previous findings from Meuti’s lab: For her dissertation, Meuti found that circadian clock genes differ between diapausing and non-diapausing mosquitoes, strongly suggesting that day length dictates when diapause should start. And more recent work led by Fyie found that female mosquitoes exposed to dim light at night averted diapause and became reproductively active – even when short days indicated they should be dormant.

In the current study authored by Wolkoff, the researchers pursued both lines of inquiry, comparing daily activity and nutrient accumulation by mosquitoes reared in two lab conditions – long days mimicking the insects’ active season and short days that induced dormancy – with and without exposure to artificial light at night.

The study provided more evidence associated with a circadian pattern to mosquito behavior, showing that insects’ activity decreases during diapause, but the circadian rhythmicity of that activity is sustained even during this dormant period.

The introduction of artificial light at night was found to affect those activity patterns and to influence mosquitoes’ acquisition of nutrient reserves needed for fattening up and weathering winter temperatures.

Exposure to light pollution suppressed the amount of water-soluble carbohydrates – sugars that are an essential food source during winter – that were accumulated by mosquitoes in both long- and short-day conditions. Patterns of accumulation of the sugar glycogen were reversed by exposure to artificial light at night: Under normal conditions, non-dormant mosquitoes had lots of glycogen in their bodies but diapausing bugs did not – but in mosquitoes subjected to light pollution, the long-day mosquitoes didn’t accumulate much glycogen and short-day mosquitoes showed an increase in glycogen accumulation.

The researchers observed consistent trends in activity-related effects of light at night, with slight increased activity among the dormant mosquitoes and slightly suppressed activity among long-day mosquitoes expected to be busy looking for food. Though the findings weren’t statistically significant, Wolkoff said the combined observations suggest light pollution causes mosquitoes to ward off diapause – perhaps by scrambling signals from their circadian clock.

“This could be bad for mammals in the short term because mosquitoes are potentially biting us later in the season, but it could also be bad for mosquitoes in the long term because they might be failing to fully engage in preparatory activities they need to survive the winter during diapause, and that might reduce their survival rate,” Wolkoff said.

The researchers plan to carry out field studies to see if these lab findings hold true in the wild.

This work was funded by the National Science Foundation, state and federal funds appropriated to Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

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JOURNAL

Insects

DOI

10.3390/insects14010064 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Light Pollution Disrupts Seasonal Differences in the Daily Activity and Metabolic Profiles of the Northern House Mosquito, Culex pipiens

Rice U. engineering students aim to shed better light on surgeries

Automated operating room lighting system aims to trim length of procedures

Reports and Proceedings

RICE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: (TOP ROW, FROM LEFT) ELLICE GAO, HEMISH THAKKAR, RENLY LIU, JUSTIN GUILAK, (BOTTOM ROW, FROM LEFT) ROSEMARY LACH AND BRYN GERWIN MAKE UP THE OR LIGHTS TEAM. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO BY JEFF FITLOW/RICE UNIVERSITY

HOUSTON – (April 10, 2023) – Improving lighting in the operating room could cut the duration of some surgeries by as much as 25%, according to Dr. Munish Gupta, an orthopedic spine surgeon at Washington University in St. Louis.

With that in mind, he tasked Rice University engineering students on the OR Lights team — Ellice Gao, Bryn Gerwin, Justin Guilak, Rosemary Lach, Renly Liu and Hemish Thakkar — with building a tunable lighting system that allows surgeons to better illuminate their working area without having to handle equipment or wear headlamps.

The project will be featured in the annual Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen showcase and competition, which will be held April 13 at the Ion. More than 110 teams are competing in this year’s event, which is open to the public.

“The basic gist is that we’re trying to create a system where surgeons can press buttons on a touchscreen, and it’ll point lights at a target area in the operating room,” Guilak said. “With current lighting, they have to adjust it manually, and often it’s hard to light up an exact spot at the right intensity and without shadows.”

“Our client performs spine surgery and spends an inordinate amount of time adjusting lights,” said David Trevas, a Rice mechanical engineering lecturer and team mentor.

Conventional surgical lights are mounted on overhead booms that need to be adjusted manually, which Gupta estimated can take up as much as a quarter of the time spent in surgery.

Headlamps were thought to help, but they require surgeons to keep their heads perfectly still as they work, which can cause neck strain. Headlamps can also get in the way when multiple surgeons are working together in close proximity.

“Our system has four separate light clusters mounted on an overhead frame,” Guilak said. “The goal is to have the lights turn and point where they are needed.”

Each light cluster is mounted onto a 3D-printed circular base that can adjust both its position and the angle of the lightbulbs.

“This allows us to aim our spotlight anywhere on a 2D plane and adjust the size of the spotlight we're creating,” Gerwin said.

In addition to the lights, a lightweight camera is mounted onto the frame.

“We’re working on an app that is going to have a video feed of the operating table,” Gerwin said. “And then the surgeon can click and drag a circle on top of the video feed, and that’s the spot the lights would focus on.”

The app would allow surgeons to adjust the position, size and intensity of the spotlight with minimal effort.

“There already are touchscreens being used in the operating room, so covers, etc., for sterilization already exist,” added Gao.

Operating room lighting requirements are very specific. Brightness, color, power source, sterilization protocols and even the noise levels emitted by lighting devices are all geared to maximize focus and reduce distraction. The team weighed all these factors carefully in its design.

Avoiding casting shadows presented a significant challenge.

“Our client described how stadium lights get rid of shadows well, but don’t focus on a specific area,” Guilak said. “We tested a bunch of different bulbs: We’d go into a room, turn off all the lights and test their luminosity, point them in different directions, etc. Our design is what we think will work best.”

In addition to Trevas, Gary Woods, a professor in the practice of electrical and computer engineering, was also a team mentor.
                                                                                                           -30-

Video URL:

https://youtu.be/O3xTjyZWrzg
(Credit: Video by Brandon Martin/Rice University)

Image downloads:

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2023/04/230404_OR_LG1.jpg
CAPTION: (Top row, from left) Ellice Gao, Hemish Thakkar, Renly Liu, Justin Guilak, (bottom row, from left) Rosemary Lach and Bryn Gerwin make up the OR Lights team. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2023/04/230404_OR_LG2.jpg
CAPTION: OR Lights team member Justin Guilak adjusts the operating room lighting system. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2023/04/230404_OR_LG3.jpg
CAPTION: OR Lights team members Hemish Thakkar, Ellice Gao and Renly Liu tinker with their lighting system. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2023/04/230404_OR_LG4.jpg
CAPTION: Ellice Gao makes an adjustment. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

Links:

Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen: http://oedk.rice.edu

George R. Brown School of Engineering: https://engineering.rice.edu

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 4,552 undergraduates and 3,998 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 1 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.

If you do not wish to receive news releases from Rice University, reply to this email and write “unsubscribe” in the subject line. Office of News and Media Relations – MS 300, Rice University, 6100 Main St., Houston, TX 77005.

Parental knowledge and attitudes toward HIV preventive treatment for their adolescent children

Study shows relatively low levels of PrEP knowledge among parents but generally positive attitudes toward it

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a daily regimen of two medications in a single pill, could prevent many new HIV infections, especially in at-risk populations. For example, research shows PrEP could prevent around 70 percent of new HIV infections in adolescent cisgender sexual minority males (ASMM) and transgender and gender diverse adolescents (TGDA), populations that are disproportionately affected by the disease. However, despite growing awareness of PrEP among ASMM/TGDA, uptake of the treatment is still less than 5 percent.

A new study published in the journal Sexuality Research and Social Policy looks at the influences that parents of ASMM/TGDA may have on their adolescent hypothetically using PrEP. The study led by Christopher Owens, assistant professor in the Department of Health Behavior at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, explores PrEP-related knowledge, attitudes and self-efficacy in parents of ASMM/TGDA. This study joins prior research by Owens into concerns about PrEP among parents of sexual and gender minority adolescents. Parents are thought to be key factors in using PrEP, so a better understanding of their knowledge, attitudes and self-efficacy is crucial.

Owens and colleagues found that more than 60 percent of parents that completed the study’s online cross-sectional questionnaire had heard of PrEP, with only one stating their adolescent had ever taken it. Parent questionnaire scores showed relatively low levels of PrEP knowledge but generally positive attitudes toward it. The respondents were in overall agreement that PrEP is effective at preventing HIV and that adolescents who take PrEP are responsible. Scores on PrEP safety were fairly neutral and levels of stigma were low, with strong disagreement that adolescents taking PrEP are promiscuous. However, parents scored low on intention and self-efficacy to engage in their adolescent’s PrEP care, with higher intention and self-efficacy scores for early steps like discussing PrEP and lower scores for later stages like getting PrEP for their adolescent.

“Parents had generally positive attitudes about their teen using PrEP, but we see they generally are unknowledgeable about it,” said Owens. “It’s possible that educating parents about PrEP and how to communicate with their teen about HIV prevention might increase their self-efficacy and intention to talk to their teens. PrEP is another tool that adolescents, their parents, and their healthcare providers can use in their HIV prevention toolkit.”

Further analysis comparing parents of sexually active and inactive adolescents found differences in scores. For example, parents of sexually active adolescents scored higher on PrEP knowledge and reported being more willing to talk about PrEP or get a prescription for their adolescent.

The findings of this study point to the role that parental knowledge, attitudes and behaviors could play in PrEP uptake in ASMM/TGDA. This study is the first to focus on parents’ PrEP-related knowledge, attitudes and self-efficacy. The findings of this work highlight avenues for further study and serve as a starting point for efforts to improve knowledge, attitudes and self-efficacy in parents of ASMM/TGDA.

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JOURNAL

Sexuality Research and Social Policy

DOI

10.1007/s13178-023-00808-0 

ARTICLE TITLE

The HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills of Parents of Adolescent Sexual Minority Males and Transgender and Gender Diverse Adolescents

Mint flavor makes vape juice more toxic, damaging to lungs

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

 

IMAGE: KAMBEZ BENAM, D. PHIL. view more 

CREDIT: UPMC

PITTSBURGH, April 10, 2023 – Adding mint flavor to e-cigarette liquids produces more vapor particles and is associated with worse lung function in those who smoke, report researchers from the University of Pittsburgh in Respiratory Research today.

Using a specially designed robotic system that mimics the mechanics of human breathing and vaping behavior, researchers showed that commercially available e-cigarette liquids containing menthol generate a greater number of toxic microparticles compared to menthol-free juice. An accompanying analysis of patient records from a cohort of e-cigarette smokers revealed that menthol vapers took shallower breaths and had poorer lung function compared to non-menthol smokers regardless of age, gender, race, pack-years of smoking and the use of nicotine or cannabis-containing vaping products.

“Many people, especially youth, erroneously assume that vaping is safe, but even nicotine-free vaping mixtures contain many compounds that can potentially damage the lungs,” said senior author Kambez H. Benam, D.Phil., associate professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “Just because something is safe to consume as food does not mean that it’s safe to inhale.”

To turn young people away from vaping and curb preventable deaths, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration continues to put pressure on cigarette manufacturers to eliminate menthol in combustible tobacco products, such as regular cigarettes and cigars. But the market for vaping products worldwide continues to expand, and mint and menthol flavors remain highly popular among the 2.5 million youth who reported smoking e-cigarettes in 2022.

Because traditional toxicity testing, which involves animals or living cells grown on a flat surface, can take weeks or months to produce high-quality and clinically relevant data, regulatory bodies are struggling to keep up and test products’ safety in a timely manner.

Traditional approaches have other limitations as well. Mice and rats, animals primarily used to test aerosolized products’ safety and biological impact, have very different anatomy of their nasal passages compared to humans, which prevents them from taking an active breath through the mouth akin to taking a cigarette puff. And cell systems used for toxicity testing are either directly exposed to e-liquid on contact or are blasted with continuous aerosols that don’t account for human breathing patterns.

To improve preclinical testing of how mixing vaping liquids and adding flavorings impact vapor composition and its health effects, researchers developed a biologically inspired “vaping robot.” By precisely mimicking the temperature, humidity, puff volume and duration, this machine can simulate the pattern of healthy and diseased breathing and reliably predict lung toxicity related to e-cigarettes.

The system can measure the size and number of generated aerosolized particles and how those parameters vary depending on liquid composition. The aerosols’ effects can then be tested on engineered “lung-on-chip” devices and quickly yield high-quality data that can be used to infer potential toxicity.

In their previous research, Benam and his team found that vitamin E acetate, a common additive in cannabinoid-containing e-cigarette liquids, generates more toxic small particles that can travel deep inside the lung and wedge themselves into the narrowest airways and lining of the walls of the trachea and bronchus.

While future large-scale clinical studies are needed, the new study suggests that menthol additives could be just as dangerous as vitamin E acetate, which was strongly linked to lung injury in users of e-cigarettes and vapes.

“The main message that we want to put out there is for people, especially young adults, who haven’t smoked before,” said Benam. “Switching to e-cigarettes may be a better, safer alternative for someone who is trying to quit smoking regular tobacco products. But it’s important to have full knowledge of e-cigarettes’ risks and benefits before trying them.”

Other authors of the study are Divay Chandra, Ph.D., and Rachel Bogdanoff, Ph.D., both of Pitt; and Russell Bowler, Ph.D., of National Jewish Health, Denver.

This research was supported by the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (grants U01EB029085, R41ES031639 R01HL159494 and R01HL153400), and the U.S. Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs Discovery Award (W81XWH2010035).

Vaping robot predicts e-cigare [VIDEO] | 

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JOURNAL

Respiratory Research

DOI

10.1186/s12931-023-02410-9 

ARTICLE TITLE

Electronic cigarette menthol flavoring is associated with increased inhaled micro and sub‑micron particles and worse lung function in combustion cigarette smokers

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Apr-2023

Impact of coronavirus on states’ fertility rates tracked with economic, social, and political divides

Those that leaned blue, were more urban, and had greater income inequality saw steepest declines

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NYU LANGONE HEALTH / NYU GROSSMAN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Experts have found that at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, Americans chose not to become pregnant as they grappled with stay-at-home restrictions, anxiety, and economic hardship. Now, a new study led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine shows that some states actually experienced steeper decreases in fertility than others.

The findings revealed that nine months after the pandemic began, there were 18 fewer births a month per 100,000 women of reproductive age across the U.S. compared with the year before. However, after the second wave in 2021, fertility fell by roughly 9 monthly births per 100,000 women, which was similar to the rate at which national fertility had been decreasing prior to the pandemic.

“Our findings suggest that while the overall national fertility rate rebounded remarkably quickly after the initial COVID-19 wave, the initial declines by state were as polarized as the country as a whole,” said study co-lead author Sarah Adelman, MPH, a research associate in the Department of Pediatrics at NYU Langone Health.

According to the state-specific results, New York State experienced a massive fertility rate decline following the first wave, plunging from a pre-pandemic annual trend of 4 fewer monthly births per 100,000 women of reproductive age to roughly 76 fewer monthly births per 100,000 women. Delaware saw about 64 fewer monthly births for the same number of women and Maryland about 55 fewer monthly births per 100,000 women. Like they had been in New York, annual fertility rate decreases in these states were in the single digits prior to the coronavirus outbreak.

By contrast, following the first wave, Idaho, Montana, and Utah experienced a boost of up to 56 additional births each month per 100,000 women of reproductive age. This is despite the fact that fertility rates in these areas had also been trending downward in the years leading up to the pandemic.

Adelman says that while previous research has documented national fertility-rate declines following COVID-19, the new study, publishing online April 11 in the journal Human Reproduction, goes a step further, comparing changes among individual states and examining factors that may account for the different rates. 

For the research, the study team analyzed data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Bureau of Vital Statistics, the 2020 U.S. Census, and from the University of Virginia 2021 population estimates, to calculate fertility rate trends after each COVID-19 wave. The team then examined whether coronavirus case rates or other factors were the main drivers of fertility rate changes.

Contrary to their expectation, the severity of the coronavirus wave in each state appeared to have had little bearing on changes in that state’s fertility rate, the researchers say. Rather, demographic factors like racial composition and economic factors, including greater income inequality, higher percentage of college-degree earners, and large drops in employment at the start of the pandemic, negatively impacted rates.

The research team then examined states’ political leaning and a measure called the social distancing index (SDI), which tracked changes in people’s mobility following the first wave. They found that states with stronger social distancing responses and that were politically liberal had larger fertility rate declines following the first wave of the pandemic. When plotted on a graph, politically liberal places such as New York and the District of Columbia had the highest SDIs and lowest fertility rates, while more conservative states such as Idaho and Montana had the reverse.

“These results suggest that changes in a state’s fertility rates were not driven by COVID-19 cases themselves but rather by existing social, economic, and political disparities,” said co-lead author Mia Charifson, MA, a doctoral student in the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone.

“While these issues have always been linked with decisions about having children, they were clearly magnified by the pandemic, highlighting the need to address underlying social factors that constrain people’s ability to grow their families, especially during times of crisis,” added study senior author Linda Kahn, PhD, MPH.

Kahn, an assistant professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Population Health at NYU Langone, cautions that since the researchers used state-level, population-wide data in their study, their findings cannot explain choices made by individuals.

Future research, she says, might examine more personal factors that influence decisions around pregnancy during times of crisis, such as student debt, job security, and access to childcare, in addition to existential concerns about climate change and political instability.

Funding for the study was provided by National Institutes of Health grants R00ES030403 and R01ES032808. Further funding was provided by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program 20-A0-00-1005789. 

In addition to Adelman, Charifson, and Kahn, other NYU Langone investigators involved in the study were Eunsil Seok, PhD; Shilpi Mehta-Lee, MD; Sara Brubaker, MD; and Mengling Liu, PhD.

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JOURNAL

Human Reproduction

DOI

10.1093/humrep/dead055 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

State-specific fertility rate changes across the United States following the first two waves of COVID-19

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

11-Apr-2023

Scheduled childbirth may greatly reduce preeclampsia, a leading cause of maternal death

Scheduled labor inductions or Cesarean deliveries may prevent more than half of at-term preeclampsia cases, according to new research published in Hypertension journal

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION

Research Highlights:

• Analysis found that more than half of preeclampsia cases that occur during weeks 37-42 of pregnancy (called at-term preeclampsia) may be prevented with timed birth, such as a scheduled induction or Cesarean delivery.
• Planned labor inductions and Cesarean deliveries are already widely practiced for a range of reasons, however, they are seldom considered as an intervention to prevent at-term preeclampsia, which may be life-threatening.

DALLAS, April 10, 2023 — More than half of all preeclampsia cases that occur during weeks 37-42 of pregnancy (at-term) may be prevented with timed birth, such as a scheduled induction or Cesarean delivery, according to new research published today in Hypertension, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.

Preeclampsia is the most dangerous form of high blood pressure (≥140/90 mm Hg) during pregnancy, and it is a leading cause of maternal death worldwide. Preeclampsia is potentially life-threatening and affects 1 in 25 pregnancies in the United States. The condition is typically diagnosed after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Symptoms include headaches, vision changes and swelling of the hands, feet, face or eyes for the mother; or a change in the well-being of the baby. Preeclampsia also indicates that there is an increased risk of developing heart health complications for women later in life.

Preterm delivery may be considered an option for women who develop preeclampsia during weeks 20-36 of pregnancy; however, most preeclampsia occurs during the time frame called at-term, which is between 37-42 weeks of pregnancy. While screening for preeclampsia is routine during pregnancy, there are limited treatment options that are proven safe and effective. Low-dose aspirin more than halves the risk of preterm preeclampsia among women at risk, however, aspirin does not affect the risk of at-term preeclampsia , which is three times more common than preterm preeclampsia and associated with more complications for mothers and babies.

Timed birth strategies, including induced labor and Cesarean deliveries that are planned in advance, are already widely practiced for various reasons. However, they are seldom used as an intervention to prevent at-term preeclampsia.

“Timed birth is achievable in many hospitals or health centers,” said lead study author Laura A. Magee, M.D., a professor of women’s health at King’s College in London, “so our proposed approach to prevent at-term preeclampsia has huge potential for global good in maternity care.”

Researchers examined more than 10 years of health records for nearly 90,000 pregnancies at two hospitals (King’s College Hospital, London and Medway Maritime Hospital, Gillingham) in the U.K. There were 57,131 pregnancies with health records at 11 to 13 weeks (between 2006 and 2017), in which there were 1,138 cases of at-term preeclampsia; and 29,035 pregnancies at 35 to 36 weeks (between 2016 and 2018), in which there were 619 cases of at-term preeclampsia. In the analysis, researchers evaluated risk of preeclampsia and potential benefits of timed birth for both groups with standard clinical criteria for preeclampsia and a risk prediction model (computer program that predicts risk of preeclampsia based on various individual factors, such as maternal history, blood pressure, ultrasound and blood tests).  

The majority of women in the dataset were in their early 30s, self-identified as white and had a body mass index at the upper limits of normal. About 10% of the women in the analysis also self-identified as smokers; fewer than 3% had a medical history of high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes or an autoimmune disease; and only 3.9% reported a family history of preeclampsia.

At-term preeclampsia occurred with similar frequency when participants screened during the first trimester were compared with those screened during the third trimester. On average, women included in the study delivered at 40-weeks, and two-thirds of all participants experienced spontaneous onset of labor. About one-fourth of the women included in the analysis had Cesarean deliveries.

The analysis indicates that, when utilizing risk-modeling in place of standard clinical screening, timed birth may prove to be an effective intervention for reducing by more than half the risk of at-term preeclampsia.

“Our findings suggest that over half of the cases of at-term preeclampsia may be prevented by timed (planned) birth,” said Magee. “It is important to note that being at higher risk of at-term preeclampsia was associated with earlier spontaneous onset of labor, so women at the highest risk were already less likely to deliver close to their due date.”

 Limitations for the research included that no interventions were provided to participants; researchers calculated potential risk only through risk modeling. In addition, the study did not examine the potential for preeclampsia after delivery. Although this was an observational study using modeling to predict risk reduction for at-term preeclampsia, the researchers noted that strengths of the study include the large population of women represented and that labor induction and Cesarean delivery are widely available options. However, randomized clinical trials, studies where individuals are chosen at random to receive treatment versus no treatment or an alternate treatment, are needed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of timed birth as an appropriate intervention to reduce at-term preeclampsia.

In February 2023, the American Heart Association released a scientific statement, Optimizing Prepregnancy Cardiovascular Health to Improve Outcomes in Pregnant and Postpartum Individuals and Offspring, which details the benefits of early interventions to support pre- and interpregnancy (during pregnancy) cardiovascular health. The statement highlighted interventions related to diet, smoking cessation and weight reduction that may reduce the frequency of adverse pregnancy outcomes at birth (such as hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, pre-term birth, small-for-gestational-age birth or gestational diabetes). Additional research is needed to better understand the relationship between comprehensive prepregnancy cardiovascular health care and the frequency of adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Co-authors are David Wright, Ph.D.; Argyro Syngelaki, Ph.D.; Peter von Dadelszen, D.Phil.; Ranjit Akolekar, M.D.; Alan Wright, Ph.D.; and Kypros H. Nicolaides, M.D. Authors’ disclosures are listed in the manuscript.

The study was funded by grants from the Fetal Medicine Foundation in the U.K. Support was also provided by PerkinElmer, Life Analytical Sciences, Roche Diagnostics and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Studies published in the American Heart Association’s scientific journals are peer-reviewed. The statements and conclusions in each manuscript are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the Association’s policy or position. The Association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability. The Association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific Association programs and events. The Association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and biotech companies, device manufacturers and health insurance providers and the Association’s overall financial information are available here. 

Additional Resources:

• Available multimedia is on right column of release link https://newsroom.heart.org/news/scheduled-childbirth-may-greatly-reduce-preeclampsia-a-leading-cause-of-maternal-death?preview=1c90a49dc0eea4286fef0149fb14ac7f
• After April 10, 2023, view the manuscript online.
• Editorial article by Rana and Prenkumar publishes with the print issue of Hypertension on April 19.
• AHA News story: Pregnancy complications could increase a woman's stroke risk at an earlier age (Feb. 2023)
• AHA news release: Severe preeclampsia treated safely with nifedipine during labor and delivery (Oct. 2022)
• AHA news release: Following a Mediterranean-style diet during pregnancy may reduce the risk of preeclampsia (April 2022)
• AHA Scientific Statement: High blood pressure treatment in pregnancy is safe, prevents maternal heart risks (Dec. 2021)
• AHA Scientific Statement: Hypertension in Pregnancy: Diagnosis, Blood Pressure Goals, and Pharmacotherapy (Dec. 2021)
• Follow AHA/ASA news on Twitter @HeartNews
• Follow news from the AHA’s Hypertension journal @HyperAHA

About the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association is a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. We are dedicated to ensuring equitable health in all communities. Through collaboration with numerous organizations, and powered by millions of volunteers, we fund innovative research, advocate for the public’s health and share lifesaving resources. The Dallas-based organization has been a leading source of health information for nearly a century. Connect with us on heart.org, Facebook, Twitter or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1.

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JOURNAL

Hypertension

DOI

10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.122.20565 

ARTICLE TITLE

Preeclampsia Prevention by Timed Birth at Term

Protein Beclin-1 is a major player in uterine remodeling and the establishment of pregnancy

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE

Throughout a woman's reproductive life, the endometrium, the mucous membrane lining the uterus, goes through cyclical remodeling. It thickens during the menstrual cycle in preparation for embryo implantation, and it is shed during menstruation when there is no fertilization.

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and collaborating institutions are investigating little-known factors directing uterine remodeling to advance the understanding of this process and provide new insights into fertility-associated gynecological conditions. They report today in the journal Developmental Cell that autophagy protein Beclin-1 governs endometrial remodeling and the establishment of pregnancy in animal models by regulating autophagy, a natural process that digests and recycles cellular components.

“One of our main goals is to understand biological processes that might be associated with pregnancy loss,” said corresponding author Dr. Rama Kommagani, associate professor in the Departments of Pathology and Immunology and Molecular Virology and Microbiology at Baylor. “In this study, we looked to understand the role Beclin-1 plays in endometrial reprogramming for the successful establishment of pregnancy.”

In the first part of this study, Kommagani and his colleagues found that Beclin-1 is essential for the establishment of pregnancy in mouse models. When they removed Beclin-1 specifically from uterine cells, the uteri did not develop properly, and this led to infertility caused by reduced uterine receptivity and failed embryo implantation.

In addition, molecular analysis of uteri revealed that Beclin-1 is necessary for endometrial programming of stem cells that leads to the development of uterine glands and other structures that are essential for uterine maturation.

“We also studied the mechanism by which Beclin-1 regulates uterine development,” Kommagani said. “Beclin-1 is known to regulate two distinct natural processes called autophagy and apoptosis that help maintain many normal functions in organisms. We investigated whether one of these two processes or both were involved.”

The team found that disabling apoptosis in the presence of Beclin-1did not alter the normal remodeling of the uterus and gland development. Importantly, restoring only Beclin-1-driven autophagy, but not apoptosis, promoted normal uterine remodeling.

“After birth, the uterus goes through a multistep process of development that is required for successful pregnancies in the future. Any deficiencies along this process can have a ripple effect on the ability to conceive and for the pregnancy to succeed,” Kommagani said. “We discovered that one of the steps involves Beclin-1-mediated autophagy, which acts as a molecular switch that governs uterine reprograming by maintaining the endometrial progenitor stem cells that support uterine remodeling.”

The findings have encouraged the researchers to explore the possibility of developing practical applications both in the field of contraceptives and infertility.

Other contributors to this work include Pooja Popli, Suni Tang, Sangappa B. Chadchan, Chandni Talwar, Edmund B. Rucker III, Xiaoming Guan, Diana Monsivais, John P. Lydon, Christina L. Stallings and Kelle H Moley. The authors are affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine, University of Kentucky or Washington University School of Medicine.

This work was funded, in part, by National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (grants R01HD102680, R01HD104813, 454 R01HD065435, R01HD105800). A Next Gen Pregnancy Award (NGP10125) from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, NIH Awards NIAID R01 AI132697 and U19 AI142784, the Cytometry and Cell Sorting Core at Baylor College of Medicine with funding from the CPRIT Core Facility Support Award (CPRIT-RP180672) and the NIH (CA125123 and RR024574).

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JOURNAL

Developmental Cell

DOI

10.1016/j.devcel.2023.03.013 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Beclin-1-Dependent Autophagy but Not Apoptosis Is Critical for Stem Cell Mediated-Endometrial Programming and the Establishment of Pregnancy

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Apr-2023