Month: January 2023

Male alcohol use has a significant negative influence on in vitro fertilization success rates, increasing patient financial burden and emotional stress, new research indicates.

The new study in Molecular Human Production is part of a research program focused on understanding how male drinking prior to conception contributes to the development of alcohol-induced birth defects and disease.

The researchers say this particular study highlights the importance of expanding fertility and pre-pregnancy messaging to emphasize the reproductive danger of alcohol use by both parents, not just the mother.

Couples struggling with fertility are increasingly using assisted reproductive technologies (ART) like in vitro fertilization (IVF) to have children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 2% of all babies born in the United States are conceived using ART, which would mean one in 50 babies were conceived using ART in 2021, according to the CDC’s provisional births data.

These statistics highlight the growing importance of looking at both parents’ contributions to fertility and pregnancy outcomes, says Michael Golding, an associate professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences’ veterinary physiology and pharmacology department at Texas A&M University.

“We say to the woman, ‘You need to be careful of what you eat. You need to stop smoking. You need to be doing all these different things to improve fertility,’” Golding says. “We don’t say anything to the man, and that’s a mistake, because what we’re seeing here is that the couple’s odds of success with their IVF procedure are increasing simply by addressing both parents’ health habits.”

Golding’s research used a mouse model to determine the effects of a potential father’s drinking on IVF pregnancy outcomes. The model included a control group that represented males who do not drink, a group that represented males who participate in chronic drinking at the legal limit, and a group that represented males who participate in chronic drinking at one-and-a-half times the legal limit.

The results reveal that the more a male drinks before providing sperm for an IVF pregnancy, the less likely the pregnancy will be successful.

“Seeing the negative effects in both the legal limit group and the group drinking at one-and-a half times the legal limit revealed that as alcohol dose increases, things get worse,” Golding says. “That really surprised me. I didn’t think that it would be that cut and dry. That really emphasized that even very modest levels of exposure were breaking through and having an impact on conception, implantation, and overall IVF pregnancy success rates.”

Alexis Roach, a PhD candidate helping conduct research in Goldings’ lab and the study’s first author, says their findings and other research conducted in Golding’s lab challenge the primarily maternal-focused narrative of previous IVF research. She also says it’s important to make the findings of this research accessible to the public.

“The most important aspect of this research is that it makes it clear that everybody plays a role in achieving successful pregnancy outcomes, even though the general assumption is that it’s just women,” Roach says. “The most important thing to take away from this is that if you’re a male considering having a family, abstain from alcohol until your wife gets pregnant.”

The research concludes that male alcohol use hinders an embryo’s ability to successfully implant in the uterus and reduces IVF embryo survival rates. The research also reveals more questions about fetal development and paternal drinking.

Golding’s lab is continuing to research these questions and the paternal aspects of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, a group of conditions that can occur when a person is exposed to alcohol before birth. His work aims to provide a holistic look at understanding fetal development and pregnancy by examining the father’s role.

For now, he says the next step in improving IVF pregnancy outcomes is getting the discoveries from this research into the hands, eyes, and ears of the people considering ART to help start their own families.

“It is important to remember that couples struggling with fertility who have chosen to pursue IVF are under intense emotional and financial pressure, which is associated with a feeling of helplessness,” Golding says.

“Our study demonstrates that drinking alcohol is an unrecognized factor that negatively impacts IVF pregnancy success rates. Therefore, as alcohol use is easily changed, our study identifies a shared action item that can empower the couple to work together toward their goal of becoming pregnant.”

Source: Rachel Knight for Texas A&M University

Non-native plants are spreading rapidly to higher altitudes along transport routes worldwide, a monitoring study shows.

Many mountain ranges contain semi-natural habitats experiencing little human interference. They are home to many animal and plant species, some of them endemic and highly specialized. Mountains have also been largely spared by invasions of these alien plant species or neophytes.

The new study shows that the pressure of neophytes on mountain ecosystems and their unique vegetation is intensifying worldwide: Invasions of alien plants into higher elevations increased in many of the world’s mountains between 2007 and 2017. The study appears in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Researchers observed that the number of alien plant species surveyed in each region has increased by a global average of 16% within the past ten years. In addition, in ten out of the eleven mountain regions studied, the scientists found neophytes at significantly higher elevations than ten or even five years ago.

However, first author Evelin Iseli from the Institute of Integrative Biology at ETH Zurich was not surprised that the neophytes are occurring higher up. “We were surprised, however, that their spread is proceeding so rapidly and that the number of alien species has increased so much within a decade,” she says. “Normally, it takes several decades for species to become established and widespread in an area.”

“This trend cannot be attributed to climate change,” she says. Alien plants are usually introduced in the lowlands. From there, they spread to higher elevations until it becomes too cold for them to reproduce. So, the neophytes simply colonize the niches that match their climatic preferences. “The plants manage to do this even without global warming,” Iseli emphasizes.

Climate has indeed warmed in some of the regions during the period of the study, but this was not related to the magnitude of neophyte expansion. “Warming temperatures set the stage for neophytes to spread to even higher elevations in the future because their ecological niche is also shifting upward,” says Iseli.

Humans, whether deliberately or unintentionally, often introduce alien plants in lowlands, then plants spread from their starting point to higher elevations, particularly along roads, which is why the researchers focused on traffic routes. Along roads, neophytes have a particularly easy time because propagules are readily dispersed by people and because the natural vegetation is disturbed; competition with native species that have adapted to the prevailing climate is, therefore, weakened.

In intact mountain habitats further from roads, on the other hand, biological invaders have a tougher time, as Iseli points out. “If the original vegetation is intact, it takes much longer for neophytes to establish themselves and spread.”

The study is based on almost 15,000 observations of 616 non-native plant species from 651 study plots and are collected worldwide using the same procedure. The researchers record the alien species in T-shaped study plots, i.e., a 50-meter-long strip (164 feet) along mountain roads and a perpendicular strip of 100 meters (324 feet). The study areas are distributed at regular intervals along multiple mountain roads in each region.

The vegetation surveys took place in southern and central Chile, two regions of Australia, Tenerife, Switzerland, two regions of the western United States, Hawaii, Kashmir, and Norway.

The first time such data were collected was in 2007 in six of the regions, and 2012 in the rest of the regions. Vegetation surveys are repeated every five to ten years. The researchers participate in this project voluntarily, funding the research from their own resources.

The Mountain Invasion Research Network (MIREN), which was founded in 2005, conducts the study. Its goal is to scientifically study “redistributions” of both alien and native species in mountain areas and to provide a basis for neophyte management. Jake Alexander, senior scientist in the Plant Ecology group at ETH Zurich, was co-chair of MIREN from 2015 to 2019.

“The current study makes it clear that we need to expand biodiversity monitoring programs worldwide and take action to avert any negative consequences for mountain ecosystems and their flora and fauna,” Alexander emphasizes. “The time to act is now because we can literally see our mountain environments changing.”

Source: ETH Zurich

Obstructive sleep apnea may be linked to low bone mineral density in adults, according to a new study.

The findings are crucial for individuals with sleep apnea, as low bone mineral density is an indicator of osteoporosis—a condition in which bones become weak and brittle.

In addition to increasing the risk of fractures, low bone mineral density also affects oral health, causing teeth to become loose and dental implants to fail, says senior author Thikriat Al-Jewair, associate professor of orthodontics in the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine and director of the school’s Advanced Education Program in Orthodontics.

For the study, published in the Journal of Craniomandibular and Sleep Practice, the researchers used cone beam computed tomography (CBCT)—a type of X-ray—to measure bone density in the head and neck of 38 adult participants, half of whom had obstructive sleep apnea.

When controlling for age, sex, and weight, the participants with obstructive sleep apnea had significantly lower bone mineral density than the participants without the condition.

Obstructive sleep apnea, which is characterized by difficulty breathing while asleep, can cause hypoxia (low levels of oxygen in the body), inflammation, oxidative stress, and shortened breathing patterns. Each of these symptoms may have a chronic negative effect on bone metabolism and, ultimately, bone density, says Al-Jewair.

“While the link between obstructive sleep apnea and low bone mineral density has yet to be fully explored, this study offers new evidence on their connection that could have several implications for orthodontic treatment,” says Al-Jewair, who is also assistant dean for equity, diversity, and inclusion in the UB School of Dental Medicine.

“If a patient has been diagnosed with sleep apnea, this can influence treatment planning and management. CBCT imaging has become an integral part of daily orthodontic practice and could be used as a screening tool for low bone mineral density,” she says.

“Orthodontists could then inform their patients of their propensity for low bone mineral density and encourage them to seek further consultation with their physician, as well as warn the patient of possible adverse outcomes, increased risks and effects on treatment time.”

Future research with larger sample sizes is needed, says Al-Jewair.

Source: University at Buffalo