This group undertakes research focusing on the impact of pregnancy on fetal cardiovascular development in health and disease. The Perinatal Cardiovascular Physiology group focuses on answering clinically essential questions and has strong links with clinicians that ensure that our research feeds into the translation pipeline. Our group has a comprehensive suite of techniques and models to test our hypotheses spanning from whole-body investigation of the maternal and fetal physiology to isolated organ, histological and molecular assessments.

Research Questions

• What are the mechanisms underlying the increased risk of cardiovascular disease in infants born following fetal growth restriction?
• What is the potential for antenatal treatments such as melatonin and umbilical cord blood cells to attenuate the impact of fetal growth restriction on cardiovascular disease?
• How does exposure to placental insufficiency in utero change the ability of a fetus/newborn to transition to life outside the uterus?
• How does congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) alter pulmonary blood vessel function, and is this worsened by the transition to ex utero life?
• Are there key biomarkers for FGR in utero that we can detect with advanced imaging?

Research Group

• Zahrah Azman, PhD Student
• Elham Ahmadzadeh, PhD Student
• Beth Piscopo, PhD Student
• Charmaine Rock, PhD Student
• Tegan White, PhD Student
• Ingrid Dudink, PhD Student
• Andrew Stainsby, PhD Student

Selected publications

• Dudink I, Hüppi PS, Sizonenko SV, Castillo-Melendez M, Sutherland AE, Allison BJ, Miller SL. Altered trajectory of neurodevelopment associated with fetal growth restriction. Exp Neurol. 2022 Jan;347:113885. doi: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2021.113885. Epub 2021 Oct 7. PMID: 34627856.

• Rock CR, White TA, Piscopo BR, Sutherland AE, Miller SL, Camm EJ, Allison BJ. Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Implications of Growth Restriction: Mechanisms and Potential Treatments. Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Jul 14;22(14):7555. doi: 10.3390/ijms22147555. PMID: 34299174; PMCID: PMC8303639.

• Inocencio IM, Polglase GR, Nitsos I, Miller SL, Allison BJ. Maternal sildenafil impairs the cardiovascular adaptations to chronic hypoxaemia in fetal sheep. J Physiol. 2020 Oct;598(19):4405-4419. doi: 10.1113/JP279248. Epub 2020 Aug 11. PMID: 32754905; PMCID: PMC7589206.

• Allison BJ, Brain KL, Niu Y, Kane AD, Herrera EA, Thakor AS, Botting KJ, Cross CM, Itani N, Skeffington KL, Beck C, Giussani DA. Fetal in vivo continuous cardiovascular function during chronic hypoxia. J Physiol. 2016 Mar 1;594(5):1247-64. doi: 10.1113/JP271091. PMID: 26926316; PMCID: PMC4771786.

• Malhotra A, Allison BJ, Castillo-Melendez M, Jenkin G, Polglase GR, Miller SL. Neonatal Morbidities of Fetal Growth Restriction: Pathophysiology and Impact.  Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2019 Feb 7;10:55. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2019.00055. PMID: 30792696; PMCID: PMC6374308.