What is it about?
The actions of THs are highly pleiotropic, affecting many tissues at different developmental stages. As a consequence, their effects on proliferation and differentiation are highly heterogeneous depending on the cell type, the cellular context, and the developmental or transformation status. Maternal THs are important in promoting normal fetal development especially the placental and CNS development. Clinical epidemiological and basic findings clearly show that maintaining normal TH regulation from the beginning of pregnancy is important to reduce the risk of obstetric complications and to ensure optimal neurodevelopment of the offspring. In normal pregnancy, transplacental TH passage is modulated by plasma membrane THTs, Ds, sulfotransferases, TRs and several different proteins within placental cells.
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Why is it important?
In pathological/abnormal pregnancies with either maternal or fetal THs disturbances (hypoor hyper-thyroidism), the placenta lacks the full compensatory mechanisms necessary to optimize the maternal–fetal transfer of THs to achieve the normality of TH levels in the fetus.
Perspectives
Elucidation of tissue-, cell-, and sex-specific expression of individual Ds and THTs during the development of both human and animals, in the adult, during aging and when sick.
Full Professor Ahmed R. G.
Division of Anatomy and Embryology, Zoology department, Faculty of Science, Beni-Suef University, Egypt.
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Maternal-Fetal Thyroid Interactions, July 2012, IntechOpen,
DOI: 10.5772/48076.
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