Studying horse miscarriages may explain early human pregnancy loss: Study

Human miscarriages could finally be decoded by their mammalian counterparts horses shows a new studyA study of horses which share significant similarities with humans in chromosomes and pregnancies revealed that 42 per cent of miscarriages and spontaneous abortions in the first two months of pregnancy were due to complications from an extra set of chromosomes a condition called triploidyldquoOver that embryonic period up to eight weeks from conception triploidy had rarely been reported in mammals outside of womenrdquo said Mandi de Mestre professor of equine medicine at Cornell UniversityldquoThe study tells us that over the first six weeks of gestation this will likely be the primary cause of pregnancy loss following natural conceptionrdquo said De Mestre who is the corresponding author of lsquoNaturally Occurring Horse Model of Miscarriage Reveals Temporal Relationship Between Chromosomal Aberration Type and Point of LethalityrsquoThe study will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesHuman miscarriages occur in 1020 per cent of pregnancies and are commonly associated with chromosomal errors but there have been no suitable animal models that truly duplicate the features of the conditionThe new research findings will help veterinarians better understand the causes of pregnancy loss in horses and identify horses as an excellent model for studying human miscarriageldquoWe were able to study the impact of chromosome errors across the entire pregnancy in the horse We found that triploidy is only associated with losses in early pregnancyrdquo de Mestre saidIn the study de Mestrersquos laboratory at Cornell and earlier at The Royal Veterinary College London received fetus and placenta samples from veterinarians who treated horses with failed pregnancies over a period of 10 yearsResearchers investigated the prevalence of different types of chromosomal errors associated with pregnancy lossChromosomal errors were found in 579 per cent of losses up to day 55 of gestation 572 per cent of losses between days 56 and 110 and only 14 per cent of losses between days 111 and the end of pregnancyAneuploidy was mainly associated with miscarriages in the first 10 weeks while deletions or duplications were found in miscarriages after 110 daysThese findings were similar to those observed in studies in womenThe studys findings will likely change clinical management of pregnancies in horses and point researchers toward new diagnostic tests and investigations into molecular mechanisms leading to chromosomal abnormalitiesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever