Mother-offspring dialogue in early pregnancy: impact of adverse environment on pregnancy maintenance and neurobiology.
The mother-offspring dialogue begins even before implantation and is essential to signal pregnancy, establish robust contact, and maintain embryo growth and development. Any circumstance that disrupts the dialogue risks pregnancy problems. A new look at how stress impacts on pregnancy involves its adverse effects on the key pregnancy hormones of progesterone and prolactin. These effects have far-reaching consequences on pregnancy maintenance, maternal anxiety and embryo programming. This review focuses on early pregnancy and how stress might compromise the multi-layer, two-way communication between mother and embryo.
Douglas
Alison J
AJ
Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology, Centre for Integrative Physiology, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Alison.j.douglas@ed.ac.uk
D010064:Embryo Implantation / Q000502:physiology; D047108:Embryonic Development / Q000502:physiology; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D006728:Hormones / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008431:Maternal-Fetal Exchange; D009035:Mothers; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000503:physiopathology; D011255:Pregnancy Maintenance / Q000502:physiology*; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000502:physiology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000473:pathology; D013997:Time Factors
D006728:Hormones