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Poster Theater Flash Session
Vitamins and Minerals
Anita Subramanian, MS
Graduate Research Assistant
The Pennsylvania State University
Casey Carr, High School
Undergraduate Student
The Pennsylvannia State University
Eszter Papp, PhD
Hospital for Sick Children
Kellie Murphy, MD
OB-GYN
Mt. Sinai Hospital Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Abdullah Al Mahmud, MSS, MMSc
Research Officer
International Centre For Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh
Daniel Roth, MD, PhD
clinician-scientist
Hospital for Sick Children, Canada & University of Toronto, Canada
Alison Gernand, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor
The Pennsylvannia State University
Objectives :
To determine the effect of prenatal vitamin D supplementation on expression of angiogenic factors in the placenta.
Methods :
This is a secondary analysis of the Maternal Vitamin D for Infant Growth trial, a randomized controlled trial of maternal vitamin D supplementation in Dhaka, Bangladesh. We examined the expression of angiogenic factors in placental tissues. Women (n=1300) were enrolled at 17-24 weeks gestation and randomized to receive: placebo, 4200 IU/week, 16800 IU/week or 28000 IU/week until delivery. We examined a subset of randomly selected placentas (n=80) collected at birth, which included 20 tissues (10 male & 10 female offspring) from each treatment group in maternal/fetal pairs. A full thickness placental core was collected; fixed in formalin and embedded in paraffin. Tissue sections were stained for vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and placental growth factor (PlGF) using immunofluorescence. ImageJ was used to quantify intensity and percent area of expression. T-tests were used to estimate the effects of each vitamin D dose on expression of angiogenic factors, compared to placebo. Interactions by fetal sex were also examined.
Results :
The mean (SD) for percent area of expression was 17.0 (4.0) for VEGF and 14.8 (1.9) for PlGF. The mean (SD) for intensity was 6520 (1549) for VEGF and 5716 (734) for PlGF. There were no significant differences in VEGF and PlGF between any vitamin D treatment groups versus placebo for percent area or intensity of expression (Table 1). The effect of vitamin D treatment was not modified by fetal sex.
Conclusions :
Vitamin D supplementation starting from mid-pregnancy until delivery did not effect expression of two key angiogenic factors in the placenta at term. The impact of periconception vitamin D supplementation on expression of angiogenic factors in the placenta remains unknown.
Funding Sources :
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation