ArticleBMC medicine2021
Dexamethasone induces an imbalanced fetal-placental-maternal bile acid circulation: involvement of placental transporters.
Article in BMC medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy and offspring neurodevelopment: bile acid-mediated mechanisms and long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes.Archives of gynecology and obstetrics · 2026Review
- Placental iron transport under maternal stress: a missing link in foetal programming and mental health.EBioMedicine · 2026Article
- Dexamethasone Promotes Autophagy Dependent Ferroptosis of Placental Trophoblast Cells Through GRα.Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2025Article
- Article
- Multi-organ developmental toxicity and its characteristics in fetal mice induced by dexamethasone at different doses, stages, and courses during pregnancy.Archives of toxicology · 2024Article
- Epigenetic programming mediates abnormal gut microbiota and disease susceptibility in offspring with prenatal dexamethasone exposure.Cell reports. Medicine · 2024Article
- Drug-Drug Interactions Involving Dexamethasone in Clinical Practice: Myth or Reality?Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Review
- LOX overexpression programming mediates the osteoclast mechanism of low peak bone mass in female offspring rats caused by pregnant dexamethasone exposure.Cell communication and signaling : CCS · 2023Article
- Revisited role of the placenta in bile acid homeostasis.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Review
- Transporter Regulation in Critical Protective Barriers: Focus on Brain and Placenta.Pharmaceutics · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe use of prenatal dexamethasone remains controversial. Our recent studies found that prenatal dexamethasone exposure can induce maternal intrahepatic cholestasis and have a lasting adverse influence on bile acid (BA) metabolism in the offspring. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of dexamethasone on fetal-placental-maternal BA circulation during the intrauterine period, as well as its placental mechanism.
methodsClinical data and human placentas were collected and analyzed. Pregnant Wistar rats were injected subcutaneously with dexamethasone (0.2 mg/kg per day) from gestational day 9 to 20. The metabolomic spectra of BAs in maternal and fetal rat serum were determined by LC-MS. Human and rat placentas were collected for histological and gene expression analysis. BeWo human placental cell line was treated with dexamethasone (20-500 nM).
resultsHuman male neonates born after prenatal dexamethasone treatment showed an increased serum BA level while no significant change was observed in females. Moreover, the expression of organic anion transporter polypeptide-related protein 2B1 (OATP2B1) and breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) in the male neonates' placenta was decreased, while multidrug resistance-associated protein 4 (MRP4) was upregulated. In experimental rats, dexamethasone increased male but decreased female fetal serum total bile acid (TBA) level. LC-MS revealed that primary BAs were the major component that increased in both male and female fetal serum, and all kinds of BAs were significantly increased in maternal serum. The expression of Oatp2b1 and Bcrp were reduced, while Mrp4 expression was increased in the dexamethasone-treated rat placentas. Moreover, dexamethasone increased glucocorticoid receptor (GR) expression and decreased farnesoid X receptor (FXR) expression in the rat placenta. In BeWo cells, dexamethasone induced GR translocation into the nucleus; decreased FXR, OATP2B1, and BCRP expression; and increased MRP4 expression. Furthermore, GR was verified to mediate the downregulation of OATP2B1, while FXR mediated dexamethasone-altered expression of BCRP and MRP4.
conclusionsBy affecting placental BA transporters, dexamethasone induces an imbalanced fetal-placental-maternal BA circulation, as showed by the increase of primary BA levels in the fetal serum. This study provides an important experimental and theoretical basis for elucidating the mechanism of dexamethasone-induced alteration of maternal and fetal BA metabolism and for exploring early prevention and treatment strategies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.