Amazing stuff! Wonders of life!
"Pregnancy induces massive adaptations in the female body as it nurtures and tolerates a growing fetus and the supporting placenta. But the chemical and hormonal changes that impact maternal organs are still poorly understood. Now, a team in China has taken a step toward filling that gap by profiling metabolic activity in a wide range of organs inside pregnant monkeys. Some organs, including the liver and heart, turned up as hot spots of activity as expected; other tissues, including skin, saw surprising metabolic changes, the group reports. In addition to a better understanding of the molecular processes at work, the authors claim the findings could shed light on metabolic disorders of pregnancy, such as preeclampsia and gestational diabetes, and lead to diagnostics and interventions. ...
So the team turned to cynomolgus monkeys, gathering nearly 300 samples of 23 different tissues from nonpregnant animals and those at early, mid-, and late-stage pregnancies and assessed their metabolites for insights. ...
Using a technique called liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry that identifies and quantifies the metabolites in a sample, the team found 91 metabolites with potential roles in helping the body adapt to pregnancy. Notably, levels of certain metabolites drastically increased, whereas levels of other metabolites drastically decreased not only in known major metabolic organs—the liver, pancreas, and heart—but also in tissues not normally thought to be heavily affected by pregnancy, including certain muscles and skin. The concentrations of most metabolites in the examined tissues also changed as pregnancy progressed. ..."
From the highlights and abstract:
"Highlights
• A metabolome atlas of 23 tissues from pregnant cynomolgus monkeys
• Metabolic coupling between the 23 tissues evolved and decreased during primate pregnancy
• Eight core pathways were associated with primate pregnancy in multiple maternal tissues
• Adaptive metabolites were identified and validated for their function in human pregnancy
Summary
Pregnancy induces dramatic metabolic changes in females; yet, the intricacies of this metabolic reprogramming remain poorly understood, especially in primates. Using cynomolgus monkeys, we constructed a comprehensive multi-tissue metabolome atlas, analyzing 273 samples from 23 maternal tissues during pregnancy. We discovered a decline in metabolic coupling between tissues as pregnancy progressed. Core metabolic pathways that were rewired during primate pregnancy included steroidogenesis, fatty acid metabolism, and arachidonic acid metabolism. Our atlas revealed 91 pregnancy-adaptive metabolites changing consistently across 23 tissues, whose roles we verified in human cell models and patient samples. Corticosterone and palmitoyl-carnitine regulated placental maturation and maternal tissue progenitors, respectively, with implications for maternal preeclampsia, diabetes, cardiac hypertrophy, and muscle and liver regeneration. Moreover, we found that corticosterone deficiency induced preeclampsia-like inflammation, indicating the atlas’s potential clinical value. Overall, our multi-tissue metabolome atlas serves as a framework for elucidating the role of metabolic regulation in female health during pregnancy."
A multi-tissue metabolome atlas of primate pregnancy (no public access)
Graphical abstract
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