Abstract
Purpose The InTraUterine sampling in early pregnancy (ITU) is a prospective pregnancy cohort study. The overarching aim of ITU is to unravel genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, endocrine, inflammatory and metabolic maternal-placental-fetal mechanisms involved in the programming of health and disease after exposure to prenatal environmental adversity, such as maternal malnutrition, cardiometabolic disorders, infections, medical interventions, mental disorders and psychosocial stress. This paper describes the study protocol, design and baseline characteristics of the cohort. Participants We included 944 pregnant Finnish women, their partners and children born alive between April 2012 and December 2017. The women were recruited through the national, voluntary trisomy 21 screening between 9 +0 and 21 +6 gestational weeks. Of the participating women, 543 were screen positive and underwent fetal chromosomal testing. Test result of these women suggested no fetal chromosomal abnormality. Further, we recruited 401 women who were screen negative and who did not undergo fetal chromosomal testing. Findings to date We have collected chorionic villi and amniotic fluid from the screen-positive women; blood, urine, buccal swabs and diurnal salivary samples from all women; blood and buccal swabs from all partners; and placenta, cord blood and buccal swabs from all newborns for analyses of the genome, epigenome, transcriptome, and endocrine, inflammatory and metabolic markers. These data are coupled with comprehensive phenotypes, including questions on demographic characteristics, health and well-being of the women and their partners during pregnancy and of the women and their children at the child's age of 1.7 and 3 years. Data also come from patient records and nationwide registers covering health, lifestyle and medication data. Future plans Multiple layers of ITU data allow integrative data analyses, which translate to biomarker identification and allow risk stratification and understanding of the biological mechanisms involved in prenatal programming of health and disease.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e049231 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Bmj Open |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 31 Jan 2022 |
| Publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Funding
1Department of Psychology and Logopedics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland 2Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 3Department of Translational Research in Psychiatry, Max-Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany 4Centre for Cardiovascular Science, Queen's Medical Research Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK 5Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore 6Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, National University of Singapore Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Singapore 7Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland 8Medical and Clinical Genetics, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland 9Helsinki Institute of Life Science, Institute of Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland 10PEDEGO Research Unit, MRC Oulu, Oulu University Hospital and University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland 11Public Health Promotion Unit, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki and Oulu, Finland Acknowledgements We would like to thank all of the midwives, obstetricians, and other medical staff, laboratory and research personnel, and administrative staff working in hospitals, antenatal and child well-being clinics, municipalities, national registers and other institutions, whose efforts have made this research possible. We would also like to thank a number of research assistants who, during the study period, participated in data collection. Finally, and most importantly, we wish to express our deepest gratitude to all the mothers, partners and children who have participated in the ITU study. Contributors KR is responsible for the overall content as the guarantor. KR, EK, JE, RR and HL conceived and designed the study. TK wrote the initial draft of the manuscript and analysed and interpreted the data regarding characteristics of the participants. SS played a key role in coordinating the data collection and was a major contributor in writing the manuscript. ML-P has extracted and processed data from various registers and contributed to writing the methods for register data. CC, DC, LD, AT, SR, MR-H and EB processed the endocrine and molecular data and wrote the methods for the genomic, epigenomic and transcriptomic data and diurnal salivary cortisol. EW supervised the neuropsychological testing and revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. EL and SS-K had vital roles in the data collection of ITU and contributed to writing the methods. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Funding The ITU study is funded by the Academy of Finland (award numbers: 1284859, 12848591, 312670, 1324596) and the Diabetes Research Foundation.
Keywords
- Epidemiology
- Genetics
- Public health
Publication forum classification
- Publication forum level 1
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Medicine
