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A new study led by Nadejda Capatina was published in the Journal of Physiology
Nadejda is a Lucy Cavendish student on the Cambridge Graduate Medical Course at the Faculty of Clinical Medicine, going into third-year and training to be a medical practitioner. Last year, Nadejda received a Santander Universities Award as College support towards her research project.
Women with pre-gestational health conditions such as endometriosis, diabetes, obesity and Lupus are at high risk of either early pregnancy loss or developing pregnancy complications. One of the potential causes is from unfavourable uterine environment as result of chronic systemic inflammation in those pre-gestational health conditions. The researchers hypothesise this may induce stress to early developing embryos.
The research article titled ‘Excessive endoplasmic reticulum stress drives aberrant mouse trophoblast differentiation and placental development leading to pregnancy loss’, written by Nadejda and colleagues (Myriam Hemberger, Graham J Burton, Erica D. Watson, and Hong wa Yung) has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review in July 2021.
The study reveals that activation of cellular stress (endoplasmic reticulum stress) in early blastocysts not only affects development of trophectoderm layer, it also alters differentiation of trophoblast stem cells, resulting in development of defective placenta which in turn causes poor pregnancy outcomes. Crucially, feeding the pregnancy female animals with a biliary salt Tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA), a health food supplement can effectively suppress this cellular stress and reduces incidence of early pregnancy loss. Therefore, the study reveals a potential therapeutic intervention for early pregnancy loss in women with pre-gestational health conditions.
Nadejda comments: “This research article is the result of my three-year PhD work. I am delighted to finally see it published in a peer-reviewed journal. Further, I am now able to continue with this research in my free time due to the generous funds from the Santander Universities Award. I am very grateful for the support of the College, my tutors, supervisors, collaborators, and of course my family!”
About the Journal
The Journal of Physiology publishes original Research Papers in all areas of physiology and pathophysiology illustrating new physiological principles or mechanisms. Papers on work at the molecular level, cell membrane, single cells, tissues or organs and on systems physiology are all encouraged. We are particularly keen to publish papers that have a clinical or translational focus, to help further our understanding of the role physiology plays in health and disease.