Objective: It has been known that maternal oxidative stress during pregnancy plays an important role in fetal growth. However, the association between antioxidant vitamin levels and birth outcomes is not conclusive. We investigated the relationship between maternal serum levels of vitamins C and E during the second trimester and birth weight and length. Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: Outpatient-clinic of obstetrics, Ewha Womans University Hospital, South Korea. Subjects and methods: The study subjects were 239 healthy, pregnant women who visited an obstetric clinic for antenatal care, and their singleton live births, in Seoul, Korea, between August 2001 and March 2003. We measured the levels of vitamins C and E in maternal serum during the period 24-28 gestational weeks. Each woman was interviewed for dietary intake by trained interviewers during the second trimester. Results: The serum concentration of maternal vitamin C during the second trimester was significantly associated with birth weight and length in the group of full-term deliveries. An increase of 1 mg/ml in the serum vitamin C level increased the birth weight by 27.2 g and the birth length by 0.17 cm. When we considered the levels of vitamins C and E together in the relationship with birth weight and length, we found that the heaviest birth weight and the longest birth length belonged to the group of upper vitamin C/ upper vitamin E. However, dietary intake estimated by 24-h recall method was not a predictor of the levels of serum vitamins C and E. Conclusion: We found that maternal serum vitamin C levels during the second trimester were positively correlated with birth weight and length in full-term babies. We also found that birth weight and length were highest when the levels of both vitamins C and E were high. Our results indicate the importance of antioxidant nutrient balance for pregnant women who are exposed to various oxidants through food, drinking water, or inhaled air.

Objective To determine, using in vitro comparative studies, developmental aspects associated with the active properties of the urinary bladder in neonatal and adult rats. Materials and methods Urinary bladders were removed from neonatal (1±3 days old) and adult (15 weeks old) male Sprague±Dawley rats. Anterior longitudinal muscle strips were obtained from each group and isometric tensions recorded. Nerve-mediated contractions elicited by electrical ®eld stimulation (0.8 ms pulse) or carbachol-induced contractile responses in neonatal and adult bladder strips were compared. Contractile tensions were normalized using the wet weight of the bladder strip or by using the percentage contraction induced by 60 mmol/L KCl. Results Nerve-mediated contractile responses showed that the muscarinic component predominated in the neonatal rat bladder, which contrasted with the predominant purinergic components in adult bladder. The pattern of spontaneous activity and carbacholinduced contraction differed in the two groups. Small spontaneous contractions in the basal state occurred in adult bladder strips, while short-lived large spontaneous contractions were present in neonatal strips. The amplitude of carbachol-induced contractions generated in the neonatal bladder was larger than that in the adult bladder. In addition, the time to achieve peak contraction elicited by carbachol (5 mmol/L) was shorter in the neonatal bladder.Repetitive carbachol applications induced an attenuation of the contractile response (desensitization), but the neonatal bladder was more resistant to desensitization than the adult bladder. Conclusions These results show that nerve-mediated or agonist-induced contractile patterns, and spontaneous activity, in the neonatal bladder differ from those of the adult bladder in rats. The results suggest that in addition to neural immaturity, there are functional differences between the bladders of adult and neonatal rats.

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