Intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR), which results in a baby having a low weight at birth, has been linked to the development of type 2 diabetes in adulthood. It has been suggested that this is because the expression of key genes is altered during fetal development and that this affects disease susceptibility later in life.

Some couples in Israel whose fetus screened positive for Gaucher disease, which can range from being mild and treatable to being a severe disease, decided to have the pregnancy terminated, raising questions concerning the appropriateness of certain types of genetic screenings, according to a study in the September 19 issue of JAMA.

Researchers report the most complete list so far of proteins present in the human amniotic fluid, the liquid that surrounds a fetus during pregnancy.

The immune system is designed to attack anything that is not the body's own tissues, such as pathogens and genetically nonidentical organ transplants, so why does the maternal immune system not attack a developing fetus? Several answers to this question are provided by a new study of mice from researchers at New York University School of Medicine.