@article{1728bf50e7e74aa38002c469bf5af700,
title = "Pregnancy and weaning regulate human maternal liver size and function",
abstract = "During pregnancy, the rodent liver undergoes hepatocyte proliferation and increases in size, followed by weaning-induced involution via hepatocyte cell death and stromal remodeling, creating a prometastatic niche. These data suggest a mechanism for increased liver metastasis in breast cancer patients with recent childbirth. It is unknown whether the human liver changes in size and function during pregnancy and weaning. In this study, abdominal imaging was obtained in healthy women at early and late pregnancy and postwean. During pregnancy time points, glucose production and utilization and circulating bile acids were measured. Independently of weight gain, most women's livers increased in size with pregnancy, then returned to baseline postwean. Putative roles for bile acids in liver growth and regression were observed. Together, the data support the hypothesis that the human liver is regulated by reproductive state with growth during pregnancy and volume loss postwean. These findings have implications for sex-specific liver diseases and for breast cancer outcomes.",
keywords = "Bile acids, Liver, Maternal health, Pregnancy",
author = "Bartlett, {Alexandra Q.} and Vesco, {Kimberly K.} and Purnell, {Jonathan Q.} and Melanie Francisco and Erica Goddard and Xiangnan Guan and {De Barber}, Andrea and Leo, {Michael C.} and Eric Baetscher and William Rooney and Willscott Naugler and Guimaraes, {Alexander R.} and Patrick Catalano and Zheng Xia and Pepper Schedin",
note = "Funding Information: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We want to thank Mara Kalter and Claire Dorfman for participant outreach and scheduling and thank our study participants, whose generous gift of time and trust made this study possible. We acknowledge the OHSU Bioanalytical Shared Resource for providing technical assistance and access to analytical instrumentation. We are grateful to Dr. Gordon Mills for constructive review of the manuscript and Weston Anderson for outstanding assistance with manuscript writing, editing, and preparation. Funding was received from the following: OHSU Center for Women{\textquoteright}s Health Circle of Giving to P.S., K.K.V., and J.Q.P.; DoD Grant No. BC170206 to P.S.; OHSU School of Medicine Dean{\textquoteright}s Fund to P.S., A.D., and A.Q.B.; and National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, No. R01DK098707 to K.K.V. Funding Information: 5. K. M. Rasmussen, A. L. Yaktine, Eds., Weight Gain During Pregnancy: Reexamining the Guidelines (The National Academies Collection: Reports funded by National Insti-tutes of Health, 2009). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.",
year = "2021",
month = nov,
day = "30",
doi = "10.1073/pnas.2107269118",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "118",
journal = "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America",
issn = "0027-8424",
publisher = "National Academy of Sciences",
number = "48",
}