Maternal health research highlights
Nightingale Health offers affordable research tools for predicting maternal and perinatal conditions responsible for a significant burden of disease in women and children in the world. Learn more about how these tools can be applied in cohort studies and longitudinal research to understand human health throughout the entire lifespan, from birth to adulthood.
Nightingale Health offers affordable metabolic profile for blood and urine samples to boost your research
- Nightingale Health metabolic profile for research offers the main biomarkers to study maternal health, and conditions such as preeclampsia and gestational diabetes affordably.
- Our service covers analysis of blood and urine samples, you can learn more about our services here.
- We are well suited for large-scale assays for longitudinal cohorts where women are followed from time-point of planning pregnancy to the time when offspring reaches teenage years.
- Choose Nightingale Health to do the full cohort – our affordable price-point allows inclusion of family members.
Explore the cutting edge maternal health research using Nightingale Health data
Metabolic profiling of gestational diabetes in obese women during pregnancy
A study published in Diabetologia investigated metabolic differences between in obese pregnant women who developed gestational diabetes (GDM) and to those who did not. Researchers analyzed blood samples from 646 women at 17 and 28 weeks of gestation and found significant metabolic changes in those who developed GDM., including elevated lipids, altered amino acid profiles, and markers of inflammation and dysregulated fat metabolism. These changes were evident at least 10 weeks before a GDM diagnosis, highlighting early metabolic disturbances in these women.
White et al, Diabetologia, 2017
Effect of common pregnancy and perinatal complications on offspring metabolic traits across the life course: a multi-cohort study
This multi-cohort study highlights how pregnancy and perinatal complications affect offspring metabolic traits, using data from eight cohorts from EU Child Cohort Network. By combining information of offspring’s 167 metabolomic biomarkers (including albumin, total lipids in medium HDL and fatty acids) with mothers’ gestational age and 4 perinatal complications, the study shows modest impacts of pregnancy and perinatal complications on newborn’s cardiometabolic risk factors, with minimal long-term effects.
Elhakeem et al, BMC Med, 2023
Do nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabolomics improve the prediction of pregnancy-related disorders? Findings from a UK birth cohort with independent validation
A UK birth cohort study explored whether integrating nuclear magnetic resonance -based metabolomics with traditional risk factors could improve the prediction of pregnancy-related complications. Using data from two large UK cohorts (Born in Bradford, n= 8212 and UK Pregnancies Better Eating and Activity Trial, n= 859), researchers developed and tested prediction models for gestational diabetes, hypertensive disorders, fetal growth abnormalities, and preterm birth. Both cohorts were analyzed using Nightingale Health metabolic profiling. The results showed that combining metabolomics with other risk factors improves predictions for gestational diabetes, hypertensive disorders, and fetal growth abnormalities but was less effective for preterm birth.
McBride et al, BMC Med, 2020
Nightingale Health’s metabolomic research service enables reproducible and cost-effective measurement of lipids, inflammation, dietary intake, insulin sensitivity, and much more.
Our biomarkers are associated with diverse aspects of human health, from cardiometabolic disease to kidney and liver function to dementia and mental health. The biomarkers also reflect the exposome, including smoking, and diet, providing foundational data for every analysis in your study.
If you genotype each sample, you should also have a metabolic snapshot as part of the core data. Take your research to the next level with metabolic insights across human health.