Corticotrophin-releasing hormone and fetal responses in XXXX pregnancy.

@entity1 @entity393 @entity6192 @entity3152
During @entity1 pregnancy, maternal and fetal compartments of the @entity1 placenta produce and release @entity6192 ( @entity6192 ). Elevations of placental @entity6192 are associated with @entity393 (including @entity3152 ). The effects of elevated placental @entity6192 on @entity1 fetal neurological development are not known. Pregnant @entity1 in the 31st and 32nd week of gestation consented to procedures for collection of blood and measurement of fetal heart rate (FHR) in response to a series of 40 vibro-acoustic stimuli (VAS). Measures of habituation and dishabituation were calculated from the FHR. All subjects were followed to delivery. Fetuses (N = 33) of @entity1 with highly elevated @entity6192 were least responsive (p < .03) to stimulation after presentation of a novel (dishabituating) stimulus with control for parity, fetal gender, medical (antepartum) risk, and gestational length at term. In a larger sample (N = 156) a polynomial model predicted the pattern of FHR reactivity for the first 15 trials. Placental @entity6192 concentration significantly predicted FHR reactivity after controlling for the effects of trial number, baseline FHR, inter-trial interval, and presence of uterine contractions. Increased maternal @entity6192 levels were significantly related to the length of gestation after controlling for the effects of fetal gender, parity, and medical risk (p = .05). The relationship between length of gestation and FHR was not significant suggesting separate actions of @entity6192 on these events. Elevated placental @entity6192 appears to accelerate certain developmental events (gestational length) and may influence the fetal nervous system. The impaired fetal responses to novelty and increased arousal observed in this study suggest that neurological systems may be targets for placental @entity6192 during sensitive developmental periods.
