- Overview
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Prenatal development determines health throughout life, and the placenta plays a critical role in supplying the fetus with nutrients and oxygen. Carefully regulated interactions between the placenta and the lining of the mother’s uterus are crucial to normal placental development and a healthy pregnancy. Abnormalities in these interactions very early in pregnancy can lead to miscarriage or to complications that are not apparent until months later, when they may threaten the lives of the fetus and the mother. Understanding the etiology of such placental complications could facilitate monitoring and preventative treatment.
Various diseases of pregnancy are associated with unusual maternal blood levels of proteins of the insulin-like growth factor pathway, but the mechanisms responsible for these associations are unknown. I am examining the roles that these proteins play in the regulation of the early growth and development of the placenta.
- Publications
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The whole is lesser than the sum of its parts? Dissecting layer-enriched samples of rodent placenta is worth the effort
Placenta
Jess C. Hercus and Daniel Alejandro Salcedo Rubio and Maria Elisa Osorio Nieto and Mackenzie M.L. Sturn and Cheayeong Keum and Julian K. Christians
DOI: 10.1016/j.placenta.2024.09.014
09/2024Sex differences in growth and mortality in pregnancy-associated hypertension
PLOS ONE
Jess C. Hercus and Katherine X. Metcalfe and Julian K. Christians
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0296853
01/2024Sex differences in the effects of prematurity and/or low birthweight on neurodevelopmental outcomes: systematic review and meta-analyses
Biology of Sex Differences
Julian K. Christians and Saboura Ahmadzadeh-Seddeighi and Alishba Bilal and Anastasia Bogdanovic and Rebecca Ho and Estee V. Leung and Megan A. MacGregor and Nolan M. Nadasdy and Gabriella M. Principe
DOI: 10.1186/s13293-023-00532-9
07/2023Are there sex differences in fetal growth strategies and in the long-term effects of pregnancy complications on cognitive functioning?
Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease
Julian K. Christians and Natalie A. Chow
DOI: 10.1017/S2040174422000204
12/2022The Placenta’s Role in Sexually Dimorphic Fetal Growth Strategies
Reproductive Sciences
Julian K. Christians
DOI: 10.1007/s43032-021-00780-3
06/2022Sex-dependent effects of prenatal food and protein restriction on offspring physiology in rats and mice: systematic review and meta-analyses
Biology of Sex Differences
Julian K. Christians and Haroop K. Shergill and Arianne Y. K. Albert
DOI: 10.1186/s13293-021-00365-4
12/2021Recovery of the maternal skeleton after lactation is impaired by advanced maternal age but not by reduced IGF availability in the mouse
PLOS ONE
Monika D. Rogowska and Uriel N. V. Pena and Nimrat Binning and Julian K. Christians
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256906
09/2021Recombinant IGF-1 Induces Sex-Specific Changes in Bone Composition and Remodeling in Adult Mice with Pappa2 Deficiency
International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Leticia Olga Rubio Lamia and Antonio Vargas and Patricia Rivera and Antonio Jesús López Gambero and Rubén Tovar and Julian Christians and Stella Martin-de-las-Heras and FERNANDO RODRIGUEZ DE FONSECA and Julie A. Chowen and J. Argente and Juan Suárez
DOI: 10.3390/ijms22084048
04/2021Maternal Obesity Does Not Exacerbate the Effects of LPS Injection on Pregnancy Outcomes in Mice
Biology
Natasha Virginkar and Julian Christians
DOI: 10.3390/biology9090293
09/2020Obesogenic diet exposure alters uterine natural killer cell biology and impairs vasculature remodeling in mice
Biology of Reproduction
Baltayeva, J. and Konwar, C. and Castellana, B. and Mara, D.L. and Christians, J.K. and Beristain, A.G.
DOI: 10.1093/biolre/ioz163
2020Pregnancy complications recur independently of maternal vascular malperfusion lesions
PLoS ONE
Christians, J.K. and Huicochea Munoz, M.F.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228664
2020Effects of high-fat diets on fetal growth in rodents: A systematic review
Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology
Christians, J.K. and Lennie, K.I. and Wild, L.K. and Garcha, R.
DOI: 10.1186/s12958-019-0482-y
2019Pappa2 deletion has sex- and age-specific effects on bone in mice
Growth Hormone and IGF Research
Christians, J.K. and Amiri, N. and Schipilow, J.D. and Zhang, S.W. and May-Rashke, K.I.
DOI: 10.1016/j.ghir.2018.10.006
2019Placental villous hypermaturation is associated with improved neonatal outcomes
Placenta
Christians, J.K. and Grynspan, D.
DOI: 10.1016/j.placenta.2019.01.012
2019PAPP-A2 deficiency does not exacerbate the phenotype of a mouse model of intrauterine growth restriction
Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology
Christians, J.K. and Lennie, K.I. and Huicochea Munoz, M.F. and Binning, N.
DOI: 10.1186/s12958-018-0376-4
2018The problem with using the birthweight:placental weight ratio as a measure of placental efficiency
Placenta
Christians, J.K. and Grynspan, D. and Greenwood, S.L. and Dilworth, M.R.
DOI: 10.1016/j.placenta.2018.06.311
2018A maternal high-fat, high-sucrose diet has sex-specific effects on fetal glucocorticoids with little consequence for offspring metabolism and voluntary locomotor activity in mice
PLoS ONE
Chin, E.H. and Schmidt, K.L. and Martel, K.M. and Wong, C.K. and Hamden, J.E. and Gibson, W.T. and Soma, K.K. and Christians, J.K.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0174030
2017Associations between imprinted gene expression in the placenta, human fetal growth and preeclampsia
Biology Letters
Christians, J.K. and Leavey, K. and Cox, B.J.
DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2017.0643
2017An evaluation of Interprofessional group antenatal care: A prospective comparative study
BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
Hodgson, Z.G. and Saxell, L. and Christians, J.K.
DOI: 10.1186/s12884-017-1485-3
2017ADAM12 and PAPP-A: Candidate regulators of trophoblast invasion and first trimester markers of healthy trophoblasts
Cell Adhesion and Migration
Christians, J.K. and Beristain, A.G.
DOI: 10.1080/19336918.2015.1083668
2016Experimental reduction of haematocrit affects reproductive performance in European starlings
Functional Ecology
Fronstin, R.B. and Christians, J.K. and Williams, T.D.
DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.12511
2016Haematocrit, eggshell colouration and sexual signaling in the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
BMC Ecology
Fronstin, R.B. and Doucet, S.M. and Christians, J.K.
DOI: 10.1186/s12898-016-0084-x
2016PAPP-A2 expression by osteoblasts is required for normal postnatal growth in mice
Growth Hormone and IGF Research
Amiri, N. and Christians, J.K.
DOI: 10.1016/j.ghir.2015.09.003
2015Pappa2 deletion in mice affects male but not female fertility
Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology
Christians, J.K. and King, A.Y. and Rogowska, M.D. and Hessels, S.M.
DOI: 10.1186/s12958-015-0108-y
2015When are sex-specific effects really sex-specific?
Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease
Chin, E.H. and Christians, J.K.
DOI: 10.1017/S2040174415001348
2015Pappa2 deletion alters IGFBPs but has little effect on glucose disposal or adiposity
Growth Hormone and IGF Research
Christians, J.K. and Bath, A.K. and Amiri, N.
DOI: 10.1016/j.ghir.2015.07.001
2015IGFBP-4 and -5 are expressed in first-trimester villi and differentially regulate the migration of HTR-8/SVneo cells
Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology
Crosley, E.J. and Dunk, C.E. and Beristain, A.G. and Christians, J.K.
DOI: 10.1186/1477-7827-12-123
2014First-trimester levels of pregnancy-associated plasma protein A2 (PAPP-A2) in the maternal circulation are elevated in pregnancies that subsequently develop preeclampsia
Reproductive Sciences
Crosley, E.J. and Durland, U. and Seethram, K. and Macrae, S. and Gruslin, A. and Christians, J.K.
DOI: 10.1177/1933719113512532
2014Placental invasion, preeclampsia risk and adaptive molecular evolution at the origin of the great apes: Evidence from genome-wide analyses
Placenta
Crosley, E.J. and Elliot, M.G. and Christians, J.K. and Crespi, B.J.
DOI: 10.1016/j.placenta.2012.12.001
2013Pregnancy Associated Plasma Protein A2 (PAPP-A2) Affects Bone Size and Shape and Contributes to Natural Variation in Postnatal Growth in Mice
PLoS ONE
Christians, J.K. and de Zwaan, D.R. and Fung, S.H.Y.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0056260
2013A major QTL controls susceptibility to spinal curvature in the curveback guppy
BMC Genetics
Gorman, K.F. and Christians, J.K. and Parent, J. and Ahmadi, R. and Weigel, D. and Dreyer, C. and Breden, F.
DOI: 10.1186/1471-2156-12-16
2011Virulence in an insect model differs between mating types in Aspergillus fumigatus
Medical Mycology
Cheema, M.S. and Christians, J.K.
DOI: 10.3109/13693786.2010.512301
2011Regulation of pregnancy-associated plasma protein A2 (PAPPA2) in a human placental trophoblast cell line (BeWo)
Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology
Wagner, P.K. and Otomo, A. and Christians, J.K.
DOI: 10.1186/1477-7827-9-48
2011Quantitative trait locus (qtl) mapping reveals a role for unstudied genes in aspergillus virulence
PLoS ONE
Christians, J.K. and Cheema, M.S. and Vergara, I.A. and Watt, C.A. and Pinto, L.J. and Chen, N. and Moore, M.M.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0019325
2011Altered placental expression of PAPPA2 does not affect birth weight in mice
Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology
Wagner, P.K. and Christians, J.K.
DOI: 10.1186/1477-7827-8-90
2010Altered levels of insulin-like growth factor binding protein proteases in preeclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction
Prenatal Diagnosis
Christians, J.K. and Gruslin, A.
DOI: 10.1002/pd.2583
2010Mononucleotide repeats represent an important source of polymorphic microsatellite markers in Aspergillus nidulans
Molecular Ecology Resources
Christians, J.K. and Watt, C.A.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1755-0998.2008.02395.x
2009Expression of pregnancy-associated plasma protein A2 during pregnancy in human and mouse
Journal of Endocrinology
Wang, J. and Qiu, Q. and Haider, M. and Bell, M. and Gruslin, A. and Christians, J.K.
DOI: 10.1677/JOE-09-0136
2009Influence of sex steroid hormones on spatial memory in a songbird
Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology
Hodgson, Z.G. and Meddle, S.L. and Christians, J.K. and Sperry, T.S. and Healy, S.D.
DOI: 10.1007/s00359-008-0369-4
2008Fine mapping dissects pleiotropic growth quantitative trait locus into linked loci
Mammalian Genome
Christians, J.K. and Senger, L.K.
DOI: 10.1007/s00335-007-9018-4
2007No evidence for inbreeding avoidance in a great reed warbler population
Behavioral Ecology
Hansson, B. and Jack, L. and Christians, J.K. and Pemberton, J.M. and ?kesson, M. and Westerdahl, H. and Bensch, S. and Hasselquist, D.
DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arl062
2007PAPPA2, an enzyme that cleaves an insulin-like growth-factor-binding protein, is a candidate gene for a quantitative trait locus affecting body size in mice
Genetics
Christians, J.K. and Hoeflich, A. and Keightley, P.D.
DOI: 10.1534/genetics.106.057513
2006Regulatory variation at glypican-3 underlies a major growth QTL in mice.
PLoS biology.
Oliver, F. and Christians, J.K. and Liu, X. and Rhind, S. and Verma, V. and Davison, C. and Brown, S.D. and Denny, P. and Keightley, P.D.
2005Behavioural genetics: Finding genes that cause complex trait variation
Current Biology
Christians, J.K. and Keightley, P.D.
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2004.12.013
2005Regulatory variation at glypican-3 underlies a major growth QTL in mice
PLoS Biology
Oliver, F. and Christians, J.K. and Liu, X. and Rhind, S. and Verma, V. and Davison, C. and Brown, S.D.M. and Denny, P. and Keightley, P.D.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0030135
2005Behavioural genetics
BioEssays
Christians, J.K.
DOI: 10.1002/bies.20247
2005Genetic complexity of an obesity QTL (Fob3) revealed by detailed genetic mapping
Mammalian Genome
Stylianou, I.M. and Christians, J.K. and Keightley, P.D. and Bünger, L. and Clinton, M. and Bulfield, G. and Horvat, S.
DOI: 10.1007/s00335-004-3039-z
2004What causes the decrease in haematocrit during egg production?
Functional Ecology
Williams, T.D. and Challenger, W.O. and Christians, J.K. and Evanson, M. and Love, O. and Vezina, F.
DOI: 10.1111/j.0269-8463.2004.00829.x
2004Identification and reciprocal introgression of a QTL affecting body mass in mice
Genetics Selection Evolution
Christians, J.K. and Rance, K.A. and Knott, S.A. and Pignatelli, P.M. and Oliver, F. and Bünger, L.
DOI: 10.1051/gse:2004018
2004Fine mapping of a murine growth locus to a 1.4-cM region and resolution of linked QTL
Mammalian Genome
Christians, J.K. and Keightley, P.D.
DOI: 10.1007/s00335-004-3046-0
2004Experimental dissociation of the effects of diet, age and breeding experience on primary reproductive effort in zebra finches Taeniopygia guttata
Journal of Avian Biology
Williams, T.D. and Christians, J.K.
DOI: 10.1111/j.0908-8857.2003.03080.x
2003Characterization of a QTL affecting skeletal size in mice
Mammalian Genome
Christians, J.K. and Bingham, V. and Oliver, F. and Heath, T.T. and Keightley, P.D.
DOI: 10.1007/s00335-002-3041-2
2003Effects of porcine follicle-stimulating hormone on the reproductive performance of female zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata)
General and Comparative Endocrinology
Christians, J.K. and Williams, T.D.
DOI: 10.1006/gcen.2001.7737
2002Avian egg size: Variation within species and inflexibility within individuals
Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
Christians, J.K.
2002Genetic architecture: Dissecting the genetic basis of phenotypic variation
Current Biology
Christians, J.K. and Keightley, P.D.
DOI: 10.1016/S0960-9822(02)00911-9
2002Intraspecific variation in reproductive physiology and egg quality in the European Starling Sturnus vulgaris
Journal of Avian Biology
Christians, J.K. and Williams, T.D.
2001Interindividual variation in yolk mass and the rate of growth of ovarian follicles in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata)
Journal of Comparative Physiology - B Biochemical, Systemic, and Environmental Physiology
Christians, J.K. and Williams, T.D.
DOI: 10.1007/s003600100174
2001Follicular development and plasma yolk precursor dynamics through the laying cycle in the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
Physiological and Biochemical Zoology
Challenger, W.O. and Williams, T.D. and Christians, J.K. and Vézina, F.
DOI: 10.1086/320427
2001Seasonal decline in clutch size in European starlings: A novel randomization test to distinguish between the timing and quality hypotheses
Journal of Animal Ecology
Christians, J.K. and Evanson, M. and Aiken, J.J.
DOI: 10.1046/j.0021-8790.2001.00566.x
2001Producing extra eggs does not deplete macronutrient reserves in European Starlings Sturnus vulgaris
Journal of Avian Biology
Christians, J.K.
2000Trade-offs between egg size and number in waterfowl: An interspecific test of the van Noordwijk and de Jong model
Functional Ecology
Christians, J.K.
DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2435.2000.00444.x
2000Organ mass dynamics in relation to yolk precursor production and egg formation in European starlings Sturnus vulgaris
Physiological and Biochemical Zoology
Christians, J.K. and Williams, T.D.
DOI: 10.1086/316683
1999Controlling for body mass effects: Is part-whole correlation important?
Physiological and Biochemical Zoology
Christians, J.K.
DOI: 10.1086/316661
1999Effects of exogenous 17ß-estradiol on the reproductive physiology and reproductive performance of European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris)
Journal of Experimental Biology
Christians, J.K. and Williams, T.D.
1999Enhanced immune function does not depress reproductive output
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Williams, T.D. and Christians, J.K. and Aiken, J.J. and Evanson, M.
1999
Congratulations CIHR Project Grant Recipients!
We are pleased to congratulate the BC Children's and BC Women's investigators who were awarded funding through the highly competitive Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Project Grant Fall 2018 competition.
