Mäkitie, Outi

Humans with monogenic inborn errors responsible for extreme disease phenotypes can reveal essential physiological pathways. We investigated germline mutations in GNAI2 , which encodes G αi2 , a key component in heterotrimeric G protein signal transduction usually thought to regulate adenylyl cyclase–mediated cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) production. Patients with activating G αi2 mutations had clinical presentations that included impaired immunity. Mutant G αi2 impaired cell migration and augmented responses to T cell receptor (TCR) stimulation. We found that mutant G αi2 influenced TCR signaling by sequestering the guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase)–activating protein RASA2, thereby promoting RAS activation and increasing downstream extracellular signal–regulated kinase (ERK)/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)–AKT S6 signaling to drive cellular growth and proliferation.

Abstract Context There are scarce data on the management of chronic hypoparathyroidism (hypoPT) in pregnant women. Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate pregnancy outcome and total number of births in maternal chronic hypoPT. Methods The Swedish National Patient Register, The Swedish Prescribed Drug Register, Swedish Medical Birth Register, and the Total Population Register were used to identify 97 women with chronic hypoPT and 1030 age-matched controls who delivered 139 and 1577 singleton infants, respectively, following diagnosis between 1997 and 2017. Results Women in the chronic hypoPT group had more frequent diabetes (DM) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) compared with the control group (P = 0.043 and P < 0.001, respectively). After adjusting for DM, CKD, maternal age at delivery, and calendar year of delivery, chronic hypoPT cases were associated with increased risk of induction of labor (OR, 1.82; 95% CI, 1.13-2.94) and birth of infants with lower birth weight (β-coefficient −188 g; 95% CI, −312.2 to −63.8) compared with controls. No difference was found in infant length, small for gestational age, or head circumference after adjustments. Mean gestational age at delivery after controlling for DM, CKD, and pre-eclampsia was not significantly younger (P = 0.119). There was no difference in congenital malformations or perinatal death and no difference in the total number of infants born between groups (P = 0.518). Conclusion The majority of women with chronic hypoPT had normal pregnancy outcomes, and the overall risks appear low. Maternal chronic hypoPT is, however, associated with higher risk of induction of labor and slightly lower infant birth weight.

Abstract Context: The majority of patients with hypoparathyroidism (HypoPT) are women. It is not known whether the presence of hypoparathyroidism influences the pregnancy outcomes. Sweden has excellent conditions for research in this area, with high-quality population-based registers covering essentially all inpatient care and birth records. In this study, data were linked from the Swedish National Patient Register and Swedish Medical Birth Register to examine the potential influence of maternal hypoPT on the number of childbirths and various pregnancy outcomes. Design and Setting: Population-based cohort study in Sweden. Patients: Through the Swedish National Patient Register and the Total Population Register, we identified 1267 women with HypoPT and 12 670 age-matched controls who gave birth between 1997 and 2016. Results: There was no significant difference in mean age at delivery for women with HypoPT (32 (SD, 5.2)) years and controls (32.5 (5.0)). There were significantly more women with HypoPT who smoked at baseline (p= 0.007) and within 3 months of pregnancy (p=0.022) compared to controls. Significantly more women with HypoPT had part time work or were not working during pregnancy compared to controls (p = 0.002). The mean number of infants per woman was 0.30 (SD, 0.62) in the HypoPT group and 0.33 (SD, 0.60) in the control group (p=0.644). Compared with the control group, the risk of elective cesarean section was higher in the HypoPT group (p=0.002). However, there was no difference in the proportion of women undergoing an acute cesarean section between cases and controls (p=0.754). The mean pregnancy duration in women with HypoPT was 38.87 (2.11) weeks compared to 39.23 (2.04) weeks for the controls (p= 0.001). Infants born to mothers with HypoPT were significantly shorter (p=0.016), but no difference was seen in weight or head circumference compared to infants born to controls. No difference was observed in prevalence of small- or large-for gestational age compared to controls. There were no differences between groups with respect to infant sex or Apgar scores at 1, 5 and 10 min, congenital malformations or stillbirth. There was furthermore no difference in pain medication use by mothers during delivery between the groups (p=0,733). Conclusion: The majority of women with HypoPT had normal pregnancy outcomes, and the overall risks must be considered to be low. Still, our findings are of importance for antenatal counseling in women with HypoPT as their risk for elective cesarean section was significantly higher compared with controls. Their children were shorter and the higher rate of smoking among HypoPT women may be an additional risk factor.