Association of Similarity between Maternal and Fetal RR Interval with Fetal Development in Humans and Mice

概要

Maternal behavior during the prenatal period was associated with the offspring's well-being and,
according to the fetal programming theory, maternal influence during the same period may extend to
adulthood. Over the past decades, many studies investigated the maternal impact on fetal health. For
example, previous studies investigated the effect of maternal weight and age on fetal well-being and
birth outcomes. During the prenatal period, fetal health is largely monitored by fetal heart rate (fHR)
measurements, hence, various research tried to understand the maternal influence on fetal
development by studying the correlation between maternal and fetal HR. Previously, correlations
between maternal and fetal HR were investigated by assessing the correlation between their average
HR collected over a period of time, and by beat-by-beat coupling analysis. However, so far, there is a
lack of knowledge regarding how maternal-fetal HR interaction or coupling is associated with fetal
development.
In this thesis, the existence of similarity between maternal and fetal RR interval (RRI) is discussed. To
our knowledge, the presence of the same similarity has not been discussed in previous literature. The
degree of similarity was assessed by conducting a cross-correlation (CC) analysis between maternal
and fetal RRI tachograms. Correlation analysis between the CC coefficients and fetal age revealed that
similarity between maternal and fetal RRI is associated with fetal development. The previous analysis
was conducted by using RRI signals that were calculated from electrocardiogram (ECG) records. The
ECG records were collected from human and mouse subjects.
To explore further, the association of maternal and fetal HR variability (HRV) with the CC coefficients
was investigated and the results showed that the similarity is associated with the maternal very low
frequency (mVLF). Because fetal RRI (fRRI) was found to be similar to that of the mother, correlation
analysis between maternal and fetal HRV was performed in this study. The result of correlation
analysis showed that positive correlations exist between maternal and fetal HRV. Also, an artificial
intelligence (AI) based model was developed to predict fRRI from maternal factors that included age,
weight, and ECG-derived features.
In addition to the above, the similarity patterns in the spectrum autism disorder (ASD) mouse model
were investigated and compared with that of typical development. The comparison showed that the
CC coefficients were lower in ASD mouse model suggesting that disturbances in maternal-fetal RRI
similarity are a feature of ASD during the prenatal period. The findings entailed in this thesis
emphasize the importance of maternal health on fetal development and well-being. Also, it highlights
the potential of assessing maternal-fetal RRI similarity patterns to monitor fetal development. ...

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