Oral dosing for antenatal corticosteroids in the rhesus macaque

Purpose: Evaluated the transcriptional effects of an effective oral dosing of antental corticosteroids using betamethasone-phophate compared to the clinical treatment with the combination drug betamethasone-phosphate+betamethasone-acetate for fetal lung maturation. Methods: RNA-sequencing of the fetal hippocampus, liver and lung was done. Differential expression analysis was done using read counts. Results: There were no significant differences between oral Beta-P and the clinical treatment in the fetal hippocampus. Small differences were detected in the fetal lung associated with cellular proliferation and in the fetal liver. Conclusions: Oral betamethasone-phosphate is an effective oral treatment that does not cause toxic effect in the fetal brain despite the higher dose. Time-pregnant rhesus macaques received corticosteroid treatments or placebo 5 days prior to delivery at 80% gestation.