Studying the placenta to better understand a child illness

Certain regulatory genes in the placenta may be linked to the varying severity of febrile seizures during fever episodes in babies and toddlers, a new study co-led by UdeM's Sarah Lippé suggests. For the first time, a Quebec research team is studying the expression of three families of genes in the placenta and the incidence of febrile seizures in children. Led by Université de Montréal psychology professor Sarah Lippé and Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) professor Cathy Vaillancourt, the study was published in mid-September in the Journal of Neuroendocrinology. Febrile seizures, or convulsions associated with fever episodes, affect 2 to 5 per cent of children from birth through the age of 5. Under certain conditions, these children are at risk of presenting cognitive difficulties as they develop. As part of a doctoral project by Fanny Thébault-Dagher, who was assisted by postdoctoral fellow Morgane Robles for placental analyses, the researchers looked at three families of genes expressed in the placenta. During pregnancy, the serotonin and stress hormone systems play a role in the development of the unborn baby's brain.