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1 Department of Pharmacodynamics, College of Pharmacy and Department of Physiology and Functional Genomics, University of Florida, College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL, USA
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kellerwd{at}cop.ufl.edu.
Previous work from this laboratory has demonstrated that the elevation of maternal plasma corticosteroid concentrations during pregnancy is important for the support of fetal development. Reducing ovine maternal plasma cortisol concentrations to nonpregnant levels stimulates homeostatic responses that defend fetal blood volume. The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that chronic decreases or increases in maternal plasma cortisol concentration alter uterine and placental blood flow and morphology. Three groups of pregnant ewes and their fetuses were chronically catheterized and studied: ewes infused with cortisol (1 mg/kg/d; high cortisol), ewes adrenalectomized and under-replaced with cortisol (0.5 mg/kg/d; low cortisol), and control ewes. The normal increment in uterine blood flow between 120 and 130d was eliminated in the low cortisol ewes; conversely uterine blood flow was increased in the high cortisol group compared to the control group. Fetal arterial blood pressure was increased in the high cortisol group as compared to controls, but there was no increase in fetal arterial pressure from 120 to 130d gestation in the low cortisol group. The fetuses of both the low cortisol and the high cortisol group had altered placental morphology, with increased proportions of type B placentomes, and overall reduced fetal placental blood flow. The rate of fetal somatic growth was impaired in both the low cortisol and the high cortisol groups compared to the fetuses in the intact group. The results of this study demonstrate that maternal plasma cortisol during pregnancy is an important contributor to the maternal environment supporting optimal conditions for fetal homeostasis and somatic growth.
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