Endocrine Abstracts

Increased hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activity in the fetus is a consistent event across different animal species, including the human. Fetal HPA activation contributes both to maturation of organ systems required for extra-uterine life and provides the trigger for the birth process. Precocious activation of the fetal HPA axis, for example in response to an adverse intrauterine environment or periconceptual undernutrition may result in increased incidence of preterm b...

John RG Challis, CIHR Institute of Human Development, University of Toronto, Canada AbstractJohn Challis is currently the Scientific Director of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health. He is also Professor of the Departments of Physiology and Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Toronto, Affiliate Scientist of the Samuel Lunenfeld Research In...