Differential intestinal and oral microbiota features associated with gestational diabetes and maternal inflammation.

Maternal microbiota is involved in many metabolic diseases. However, its role in the pathophysiology of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) remains unclear. In this case-control study, we performed a 16S rRNA sequencing-based microbial survey to compare the intestinal and oral microflora at third trimester during pregnancy between 30 GDM and 31 normal controls. Sequentially, a correlation-based network analysis was further performed to explore the interactions among microbiota, maternal and infant blood sugar, and inflammatory markers. Our results show that, compared with controls, the GDM cases showed significant differences in ß-diversity and increased Gammaproteobacteria and Hemophilus in intestinal microbiota. Furthermore, the GDM cases showed lower α-diversity, increased Selenomonas and Bifidobacterium, and decreased Fusobacteria and Leptotrichia in oral microbiota. The ROC curve showed the area under the curve to be equal to 0.70 and 0.66 when using oral Leptotrichia or gut Hemophilus, respectively, to predict GDM status. In addition, the components and topography of microbial cooccurrence and coexclusion network were quite distinct by GDM status. In summary, intestinal and oral microorganisms in pregnant women are closely related to the status of GDM in the third trimester of pregnancy. The changes of intestinal and oral microbial features may be noninvasive biomarkers for monitoring the health management of GDM pregnancy.

Association Between Isolated Single Umbilical Artery and Perinatal Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND To evaluate the association between the isolated single umbilical artery (iSUA) and perinatal outcomes, including pregnancy outcomes and perinatal complications. MATERIAL AND METHODS We performed a meta-analysis of 15 eligible studies regarding the relationship between the iSUA and perinatal outcomes, including gestational age at delivery, nuchal cord, placental weight, small for gestational age (SGA), oligohydramnios, polyhydramnios, pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH), gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), preeclampsia, and perinatal mortality. The overall odds ratios (OR) or standardized mean difference (SMD) were calculated. RESULTS The occurrence of nuchal cord was not found to be different between an iSUA and a three-vessel cord (TVC) fetus. For perinatal complications, the SGA, oligohydramnios, polyhydramnios, GDM, and perinatal mortality showed dramatic difference between women with an iSUA and women with a TVC fetus, which implied that the presence of iSUA significantly increased the risk of perinatal complications. For other perinatal complications, such as PIH and preeclampsia, no significant association was detected. CONCLUSIONS Our meta-analysis suggests that the presence of iSUA would increase the risk of perinatal complications such as SGA, oligohydramnios, polyhydramnios, GDM, and perinatal mortality. Therefore, pregnant women with an iSUA fetus have poorer perinatal outcomes and more attention should be given to the management of their pregnancy compared to women with a TVC fetus.

[Noninvasive prenatal screen of trisomy-21 using maternal plasma fetal free RNA allelic ratio].

OBJECTIVE: Through the detections of the heterozygote frequencies tests of fetal specific genes PLAC4 and COL6A2 mRNA alleles in plasma of pregnant women, to explore its possibility of application in the noninvasive prenatal screenings of trisomy-21. METHODS: A toltal of 500 cases (males and females 250 cases respectively)of Han ethnic groups with Henan Provice of China who were subject to the physical checkup clinic of the Third Affiliated Hospital, Zhengzhou University from June to December, 2013 were selected as the healthy physical checkup group, and such techniques as DNA sequencing and PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) were adopted to the determinations of the heterozygote frequencies of the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of the PLAC4 and COL6A2 genes in the maternal peripheral blood in the healthy physical checkup group, and the differential comparisons of the determination results of the SNP heterozygote frequencies and the corresponding heterozygote frequencies in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database; 30 cases of healthy pregnant women who spontaneously underwent pregnancy checkups at the maternity clinic were randomly selected as the healthy pregnancy group, and real-time fluorescence quantitative reverse transcription-PCR technique was adopted for determining the expression levels of PLAC4 and COL6A2 mRNA in the peripheral blood of pregnant women of 8 weeks, 10 weeks, 12 weeks, 14 weeks and 16 weeks; 40 cases of the same phase were selected for acting as the specimens for the karyotype analyses of the amniotic fluid cells, among which 20 cases were trisomy-21, and the 20 cases of the negative control group, and reverse transcription-multiplex ligation dependent probe amplification (RT-MLPA) technique was adopted for screening the fetal trisomy-21. RESULTS: (1) The allele heterozygote frequencies of the SNP of the healthy physical checkup group: determinations of the genotypes and hybrid rates of the 10 SNP sites of the PLAC4 and COL6A2 genes indicated that those with higher heterozygote frequencies were respectively rs7717, rs559, rs1044598, rs59066201 and rs1042917, with population coverage of 98%. Among them, the allele hybrid rates of rs59066201 were never seen in the NCBI database; in the respective comparisons of the allele hybrid rates of rs8130833, rs9977003 and rs7844 with the hybrid rates of the NCBI database, the variations had statistical significance (P < 0.05). (2) The expression levels of PLAC4 and COL6A2 mRNA of the different pregnancy weeks of the healthy pregnancy group: the levels of PLAC4 mRNA in the peripheral blood of women of 8 weeks, 10 weeks, 12 weeks, 14 weeks and 16 weeks of pregnancy were respectively 7.22 ± 1.05, 8.02 ± 1.41, 9.51 ± 1.69, 11.33 ± 2.11 and 13.31 ± 2.58, with their expression levels rising along with the increase of the pregnancy weeks; among them, the comparison of pregnancy 8 weeks and pregnancy 10 weeks, the variations had no statistical significance (P > 0.05); in the mutual comparisons among the expression levels of the various pregnancy weeks, the variations had statistical significance (P < 0.05). The expression levels of COL6A2 mRNA in 8 weeks, 10 weeks, 12 weeks, 14 weeks and 16 weeks were respectively 8.95 ± 1.28, 11.19 ± 1.36, 15.00 ± 1.58, 16.87 ± 1.72 and 18.96 ± 2.79, with their expression levels rising along with the increase of the pregnancy weeks, and in the mutual comparisons between the expression levels of the various pregnancy weeks, the variations all had statistical significance (P < 0.05). (3) Prenatal screenings of trisomy-21 in the validation group of the trisome: a total of 5 sites of rs7717, rs559, rs1044598, rs59066201 and rs1042917 were selected from the allele heterozygote frequencies of SNP sites were selected from the subjects of the healthy physical checkup group, and 10 cases of trisomy-21 specimens and 10 cases of negative CTR specimens were accurately determined, with the sensitivity reached 80% (17/20), and the specificity reached 90% (18/20). One case of the trisomy-21 and two negative cases were both homozygotes, and among the trisomy-21 specimens of two cases, only one SNP was a heterozygote, and it was impossible to conduct screenings on these 5 cases, with the screening accuracy reaching 100% (35/35). CONCLUSIONS: Fetal specific genes PLAC4 and COL6A2 mRNA are expressed in the peripheral blood of pregnant women in different gestational age; its expression level increases with the increase of gestational age. Among them, five SNP including rs7717, rs559, rs1044598, rs59066201 and rs1042917 show highest heterogeneity rate, which is different from the corresponding heterogeneity rate in NCBI database. RT-MLPA technology is a rapid, effective, noninvasive and low cost method of prenatal screening 21 trisomy.

Green city logistics path planning and design based on genetic algorithm.

Effective logistics distribution paths are crucial in enhancing the fundamental competitiveness of an enterprise. This research introduces the genetic algorithm for logistics routing to address pertinent research issues, such as suboptimal scheduling of time-sensitive orders and reverse distribution of goods. It proposes an enhanced scheme integrating the Metropolis criterion. To address the limited local search ability of the genetic algorithm, this study combines the simulated annealing algorithm's powerful local optimization capability with the genetic algorithm, thereby developing a genetic algorithm with the Metropolis criterion. The proposed method preserves the optimal chromosome in each generation population and accepts inferior chromosomes with a certain probability, thereby enhancing the likelihood of finding an optimal local solution and achieving global optimization. A comparative study is conducted with the Ant Colony Optimization, Artificial Bee Colony, and Particle Swarm Optimization algorithms, and empirical findings demonstrate that the proposed genetic algorithm effectively achieves excellent results over these algorithms.

Relationship between unexplained recurrent pregnancy loss and 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase) polymorphisms.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between unexplained recurrent pregnancy loss (URPL) and polymorphisms of folate metabolism-related genes. DESIGN: A case-control study. SETTING: Urban university-based hospital. PATIENT(S): Two-hundred and eighteen women with URPL and 264 healthy controls. INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction examination of sequences of the C677T and A1298C loci of the 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene. RESULT(S): The frequency of the T allele at the MTHFR C677T locus in the URPL group was statistically significantly higher compared with the control group (odds ratio [OR] 1.324; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.014-1.729), and the presence of the CC+CT genotype was statistically significantly reduced in the URPL group (OR 0.678; 95% CI, 0.471-0.974). The frequency of the C allele at the MTHFR A1298C locus in the URPL group was statistically significantly higher than that in the control group (OR 1.557; 95% CI, 1.066-2.275), and the presence of the CC+AC genotype was statistically significantly elevated in the URPL group (OR 1.740; 95% CI, 1.137-2.661). The frequency of MTHFR 677CT/1298AC compound genotypes in the URPL group was 6.589-fold higher compared with the control group. Most patients in the URPL group carried two mutant genes (69.3%), and the percentage of patients with two mutant genes was statistically significantly higher than in the control group (OR 4.996; 95% CI, 1.650-15.129). CONCLUSION(S): The MTHFR 1298AC genotype and composite heterozygote genotype (677CT/1298AC) are risk factors for URPL. The risk of URPL is highest in women carrying two mutations of A1298C and C677T locus in MTHFR.

The Risk Factors and Neonatal outcomes of Isolated Single Umbilical Artery in Singleton Pregnancy: A Meta-analysis.

The current meta-analysis aims to evaluate the risk factors and neonatal outcomes of isolated Single Umbilical Artery (iSUA) in singleton pregnancy. Standard Mean Difference (SMD) or Weighted Mean Difference (WMD) was pooled for the maternal age, gravidity and parity, neonate birth weight and Apgar score one and five minutes after birth. We also pooled the odds ratios (ORs) at 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for maternal smoking status, the rate of neonate delivery before 37 or 34 weeks, Cesarean section (CS), the rate of being admitted to neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and the serious adverse neonate outcome. Results show that maternal primigravidity [OR: -0.082, CI (-0.152, -0.011), p = 0.023] and female sex of the neonate [OR: 0.805, CI (0.673, 0.963), p = 0.017] were associated with higher risks of iSUA. As compared to normal neonates, the neonates with iSUA had lower birth weight, worse Apgar score, increased risk of delivery before the normal gestational age, increased rate of CS due to fetal distress, increased rate of admission to NICU and prolonged NICU stay. However, no difference in neonatal mortality was observed. Maternal primigravidity and female neonate might associate with increased risk of iSUA. Identification of iSUA is of great importance for prenatal diagnosis and may improve neonatal outcomes.