Researchers at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) suggest that caffeine consumption during gestation can change important brain pathways of the fetus that could lead to future behavior problems.

To reach this conclusion, analyzed more than 9,000 brain scans of nine and ten year old children.

Small but relevant changes

Previous studies have found that caffeine can have a negative effect on pregnancy and neurodevelopment. It is also known that a fetus does not have the enzyme needed to break down caffeine when it crosses the placenta. This new study reveals that caffeine could also leave a lasting impact on neurodevelopment.

In Xataka Science

All this life is what fits at the end of the period of this sentence.

The changes are not drastic nor are the behavioral problems severe, but they are relevant, as explained John Foxe, lead author of the study. Basically, attention and hyperactivity difficulties were detected.

The researchers point out that they are also not clear if the impact of caffeine on the fetal brain varies from one trimester to the next, or when these structural changes occur during gestation. Furthermore, as they warn:

It is important to note that this is a retrospective study. We rely on mothers to remember how much caffeine they consumed during pregnancy.

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The news

Consuming caffeine during pregnancy could trigger behavioral problems in the future baby

was originally published in

Xataka Science

by
Sergio Parra

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The race for life, in which millions of sperm swim quickly towards the egg, is neither fair nor noble: rather a ruthless race in which even There are manipulative sperm that are careful to poison their competition..

In what points out a new study published in PLOS Genetics by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics (MPIMG) in Berlin.

The research studied mouse sperm cells under a microscope to better understand the effects of a particular DNA sequence known as the t haplotype. The team knew from previous research that sperm that carry this sequence they tend to swim straighter (instead of going in circles) and faster on average than competing sperm without it.

He haplotype t is a series of linked genes that occupy chromosome 17 in house mice around the world. (Unlike humans, who have 23 pairs of chromosomes, mice only have 20.) What happens is that sperm with the t haplotype manage to disable sperm without it.

Specifically, the t haplotype 'poisons' all sperm during the early phases of sperm production, injecting each cell with certain genes that inhibit its ability to regulate movement. It is not until a later phase, when each cell divides in half, that the 'antidote' comes into play. After splitting, half of sperm inherit the genes of the t haplotype on chromosome 17.

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For lucky sperm, the t haplotype provides new genetic variants that reverse the inhibitory effects of the 'poison' that all cells consumed during the previous phase of development. According to explains the co-author of the study, Bernhard Herrmann, director of MPIMG:

The trick is that the t haplotype 'poisons' all the sperm, but at the same time produces an antidote, which acts only on the t sperm (those with the t haplotype) and protects them. The result is a kind of marathon in which all participants receive poisoned drinking water, but only some of the runners have access to the antidote.

In their study, the researchers saw that many sperm without the antidote literally swam in circles until they died, while their t-haplotype competitors swam directly forward.

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The news

Some sperm literally poison their competition in the race to fertilize an egg

was originally published in

Xataka Science

by
Sergio Parra

.