News & Updates

Truvada, a drug combination that reduces the chances of HIV infection in high-risk people may result in small, yet persistent bone loss in younger adolescent males, suggests a study supported by the NICHD. The researchers added, however, that the protection against HIV offered by Truvada far outweighs any possible risks from bone loss.

Supportive parenting may help adolescents avoid brain development issues that have been linked to living in poverty, suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. By age 25, children of supportive parents—those who reason with and encourage their children to consider the consequences of their behavior—had more neural connections in brain regions that regulate learning, memory, and emotional control, compared to peers with less supportive parents.

Maternal stress during pregnancy may influence fetal brain development in ways that increase the risk of depression by early adolescence, suggests a small study funded by the National Institutes of Health.

NICHD was established more than 50 years ago to help understand maternal health and improve pregnancy outcomes. These selected advances highlight NICHD’s contributions to advancing the health and well-being of pregnant women, mothers, and families everywhere.

Approximately 90 percent of teens killed by an intimate partner in the United States are girls, suggests an analysis funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The deaths identified in the study most commonly resulted after the victim either ended or would not enter a romantic relationship with the perpetrator or started a relationship with someone else. The findings provide information for researchers developing interventions to prevent intimate partner homicides among teens.

Some preterm infants produce a protein in response to inflammation that appears to protect them against birth-related brain injury, according to an analysis by researchers funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The substance, known as haptoglobin, is present in umbilical cord blood. Future studies could determine if testing preterm infants for haptoglobin identifies those who would benefit from interventions to prevent brain injury or lessen its effects.

The drug colchicine, used to treat the arthritic condition gout, could potentially reduce complications accompanying metabolic syndrome, a combination of high blood pressure, high blood sugar and other conditions that increase the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health.

Researchers have successfully frozen testicular tissue from monkeys too young to produce sperm and used this tissue to produce a pregnancy resulting in live, healthy offspring. The finding is an early step in the development of a method to store testicular tissue for children before they undergo fertility-destroying treatment for cancer or other disorders. The research team was led by Kyle E. Orwig, Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), part of the National Institutes of Health.

An analysis of a previous study has found more evidence to support giving the steroid betamethasone to pregnant women at risk of late-preterm delivery (between 34 and 36 weeks of gestation), according to a network funded by the National Institutes of Health. Hospital stays for infants whose mothers received the drug cost less on average, compared to stays for infants whose mothers did not take the drug.

For women in resource-poor settings, taking a certain daily nutritional supplement before conception or in early pregnancy may provide enough of a boost to improve growth of the fetus, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Genomic sequencing identified a higher risk of childhood genetic disorders in 9 percent of newborns who had passed standard screening for these diseases, according to researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings, from the BabySeq Project, are part of a larger effort to examine whether newborn genomic sequencing is suitable for routine health care.

Health experts recommend the seasonal flu shot for pregnant women.

Video program teaches kids to interpret dogs’ warning signals

As part of NICHD’s continued partnership with the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity®, Inc., the NICHD-led Safe to Sleep® campaign recently launched a mini-grant program to support fraternity members in conducting safe infant sleep outreach. The mini-grants will enable Kappa members to lead and host activities in their communities, where they can share safe infant sleep messages in culturally sensitive ways.

Research supported by the National Institutes of Health finds that giving children intravenous (IV) fluids to treat diabetic ketoacidosis—an emergency complication of untreated diabetes—does not appear to worsen the brain swelling that may accompany the condition.

Among women planning to conceive after a pregnancy loss, those who had sufficient levels of vitamin D were more likely to become pregnant and have a live birth, compared to women with insufficient levels of the vitamin, according to an analysis by researchers at the National Institutes of Health.

Gestational diabetes may predispose women to early-stage kidney damage, a precursor to chronic kidney disease, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an anti-HIV drug combination for use in at-risk adolescents. FDA’s decision was informed by an NICHD-supported study of adolescent males.

A National Institutes of Health network study has confirmed that a combination of two drugs taken daily to reduce the chances of HIV infection among high-risk adults also works well and appears safe in males ages 15 to 17 years.

A drug combination aimed at preventing transmission of HIV from a pregnant woman to her fetus likely does not increase the risk for preterm birth and early infant death, according to a re-analysis of two studies funded by the National Institutes of Health.