A new Otago study will test how the hormonal changes responsible for helping women’s brains adapt to pregnancy work – and the serious complications that can occur for both mother and baby when these changes go awry.
Professor David Grattan of the University of Otago, Dunedin, has been awarded nearly $5 million from the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) to evaluate how the pregnancy hormones prolactin and placental lactogen induce changes in the mother’s brain to help her adapt to the physiological and metabolic demands of pregnancy.
“To provide the optimal environment for development of her baby, the mother’s body undergoes numerous changes. Apart from obvious adaptations in the uterus and breast, there are other equally important changes, particularly in the brain. These adaptations are driven by pregnancy hormones, especially prolactin and placental lactogen,” says Professor Grattan.
The ‘Healthy pregnancy, healthy babies’ study will use a new mouse strain developed by Professor Grattan to examine the role of prolactin in regulating food intake and body weight during pregnancy, timing of birth, and postnatal behavioural and mood changes.
“We will explore how impairment of these adaptive responses may result in conditions such as maternal obesity, gestational diabetes, preterm labour and postnatal depression. Such adverse events can also have serious consequences on the baby, changing brain development and increasing life-long risk of many diseases, including obesity and mental illness,” says Professor Grattan.
The study will include a feasibility trial to determine if the observations seen in the mouse models translate to pregnancy in humans.
Professor Grattan’s study is one of four Programmes to receive almost $5 million each in the HRC’s 2014 funding round. In addition to the $19.87 million awarded to these four Programmes, the HRC has also awarded funding of $56 million to 50 Projects – up from 33 Projects in 2013.
View the full list of Programme recipients below. To read lay summaries about any of these Programmes, go to our research repository.
Programme recipients 2014
Professor David Grattan, University of Otago, Dunedin
Healthy pregnancy, healthy babies
60 months, $4,987,293
Associate Professor Tony Merriman, University of Otago, Dunedin
Urate and gout: genetic control, environmental and drug interactions
60 months, $4,999,512
Professor Mark Richards, University of Otago, Christchurch
Heart failure: Markers and management
60 months, $4,980,858
Professor William Wilson, the University of Auckland
Biomarker-guided drug targeting of the tumour microenvironment in radiotherapy
60 months, $4,918,968