The PAG (Pregnancy-Associated Glycoproteins) gene family and chorionic expressions of their products suggest an important role(s) of this glycoprotein family throughout pregnancy in various mammals (pig, cattle, sheep, goat, hourse, zebra, cat and mouse). Each cloned cDNA is a major source of template for recombinant PAG protein productions, necessitated for requirements at various diagnostic tests of early pregnancy in ruminants. Moreover, each cDNA may be applied as template for preparation of selective genetic tests (i.e. micro-arrays), can provide essential background for estimation of correlations between various PAG genotypes and physiological reproductivity of each animal. Aforementioned genetic tests presumably will allow for pre-selection of young indyviduals with effective reproductive performances.
Periconceptional folic acid supplementation is recommended to prevent congenital malformations, mainly neural tube defects, but only 7% of pregnant women in Saxony-Anhalt (Germany) take folic acid at least 4 weeks before conception and in the first 3 months of pregnancy. From March to June 2004, we sent standardized questionnaires about folic acid and its importance during pregnancy to 33 schools in the Federal State of Saxony-Anhalt. A total of 4332 young people aged 1521 years completed the questionnaire, of which 2632 were girls (61%) and 1685 were boys (39%). The majority of them (61%) had heard about folic acid, but only 5% knew that it is a vitamin and 0.7% were aware of the physiological functions of folic acid. Only 22% of the young people answered that folic acid should be taken before and during pregnancy, whereas almost all respondents knew other precautions during pregnancy, e.g. 'no smoking' and 'no alcohol'. Our survey shows that the level of awareness of the importance of folic acid at schools is very low. We suggest that the problem of folic acid should be included in the curricula of biology classes at schools to spread the knowledge of this subject among young people.
In mammals, succesful implantation of semi-allogenic conceptus (embryo +trophoblast) in the maternal uterus is still an enigma.Its understanding will require better knowledge of the complex hormonal and immunological "cross-talk" between implanting conceptus and mother.IN several ungulate species, around the time of implantation, the trophoblast synthesizez and secrets interferons (IFNs), known as antiviral and immunomodualtory cytokines.THe IFN induction is transient (6-7 days long)), and reaches high levels in ruminants and pigs.This IFN synthesis in early pregnancy addresses two man questions:1)Is there a specific IFN gene regulation in trophoblast, and what are the molecular determinants of this specificity (coding and regulatory sequences) ? 2)What is (are) the effect(s) ogf IFN synthesis on the physiological and/or immune maternal response ? This area of research might find applications in animal breeding in particulatr through improvement of embryo transfer and increase in fecundity, in several animal species.
One of the great mysteries in modern immunology is how extraembryonic membranes escape rejection by maternal immune response, although they express paternal genes/antigenes which should stimulate allogenic recognition and rejection.Generally, two theories try to explain the pregnancy phenomenon.One of them emphasizes the role of immunosuppresive reactions in the protection of the fetus.On the contrary, the "immunotropism" theory insist on the importance of mother's immune antigens of the conceptus.Moreover, the last years abounded in discoveries on molecules regulating cell-cell interaction at the level of the initiation and effect or stage of the immune response.The best examples of such molecules could be extracellular matrix proteins, integrins, interleukins and various growth factors.The discussion of those molecules as regards their role in the protection of the fetus was the main aim of this article.
Microchimerism is defined by the presence within an individual of a low level of cells derived from a different individual. The main, natural source of microchimerism is pregnancy. The migration of fetal cells into maternal blood during pregnancy has become an accepted fact. The maternal cells can also be found in the fetal circulation. Recent studies indicate that cells can persist in the maternal circulation for years after pregnancy. Maternal cells can also persist in het progeny. The autoimmune diseases are a diverse group of disorders. Many of them are of unknown etiology. Women are disproportionately affected by autoimmune disease and the incidence of some autoimmune disease in women peak following childbearing years. The integration of observation from differing fields of medicine has led to the consideration that microchimerism may be involved in the pathogenesis of some autoimmune diseases. Early results offer support for a potential role of microchimerism in SSc. The aim of this paper is to present current knowledge about this problem.
The Belle Époque was a period, when the topics, that until this moment had been recognised as taboo, entered the literature for example illegitimate children, abandonment of child, abortion and infanticide. The most frequent social problem associated with maternity in that time were unmarried mothers. Usually they originated from working class and were oppressed because they broke customary standard. The paper is about two personages from books written at the end of the 19th century by Polish and Czech women writters. They were interested in the situation of young pregnant and un-married women. Both of them write about transformation of woman’s pregnant body and analyse, how it affects their thinking about maternity and their unborn children. On the other hand, these stories are also about social marginalization of the illegal mothers and about awakening femininity by labour pains. Kaśka Kariatyda written by Polish writter Gabriela Zapolska is primarily a story about negligence of sexual education and pregnancy, which leads up to death of eponymous. As antithesis I choosed novel Vzpoura written by Czech writter, Božena Viková-Kunětická. She was convinced that all women are entitled to maternity, regardless of their marital status. Furthermore, she claimed, that the essential factor of femininity are labour pains, and it is the only way for women to understand themselves.
We report on 3 kindred patients with terminal 11q monosomy and distal 22q trisomy involving the SHANK3 gene, resulting from a subtle familial translocation t(11;22)(q24.2;q13.33). The patients presented with the characteristic symptoms of Jacobsen syndrome (JBS), including: mental retardation, short stature, and craniofacial dysmorphism in all 3 cases; cardiac defects in 2 cases; and thrombocytopenia, brain abnormality, eye coloboma, recurrent infections, cryptorchidism and toe anomalies in single cases. The oldest patient also had Hashimoto disease and diabetes mellitus type 2. So far, these 2 conditions have not been reported in adult patients with JBS. Features typical for distal 22q trisomy in our patients include muscular hypotonia and prenatal failure to thrive, seen in 2 and 1 cases, respectively. We also present a family member with 11q24.2-qter trisomy and 22q13.33-qter monosomy, whose clinical phenotype is partially overlapping with several dysmorphic features of JBS. In addition, multiple pregnancy losses and infantile deaths occurred in this family, suggesting that these chromosomal imbalances may produce a lethal phenotype. FISH with a panel of BAC probes determined the accurate sizes of the deletion 11q (9.9 Mb) and trisomy 22q (0.8 Mb). To date, only 5 cases of submicroscopic 22q13.3-qter trisomy have been reported. A detailed clinical description of our patients, along with a precise cytogenetic designation of chromosomal breakpoints, allow further refinement of genotype-phenotype correlation for distal imbalances in 11q and 22q.
Interferon tau (IFN-tau) is an key cytokine in maintaining pregnancy in ruminants. It is produced by the ruminant conceptus around the time of implantation. IFN-tau belongs to the type I interferon family but, unlike the other members of this group, it is not virus inducible and its expression is temporal and restricted to the trophoblast cells of the ruminant conceptus. The main target of the paracrine action of this cytokine is the endometrium. It changes the prostaglandin metabolism and secretory function of the cells by upregulating the secretion of several proteins. It also presents immunomodulatory action towards leukocytes by changing their proliferative responses and cytokine production. This cytokine activity in reproductive biology and immunology has been intensively explored for the last ten years. It has been regarded as a potential tool in improving the performance and biotechnological processes in ruminant reproduction. Additionally, its high antiviral potency and low cytotoxicity in comparison with IFN-tau has placed this cytokine in the group of possible therapeutics in human and animal medicine.
The aim of the present study was to investigate transcript localization of the oxytocin receptor (OTR) gene in different cells of the porcine uterus during luteolysis and early pregnancy (days 14?16) using in situ hybridization (ISH). OTR mRNA was localized in the uterine luminal epithelium (LEC), glandular epithelium (GEC), stromal cells (SC) of the endometrium, in the longitudinal muscle layer (LM) and circular muscle layer (CM) of the myometrium. The OTR transcript was quantified by optical density units of silver grains. The OTR transcript levels in the endometrium and myometrium were statistically higher during luteolysis than during early pregnancy (P < 0.05). Besides, during luteolysis, the mRNA level was higher in the LEC, GEC of the endometrium and LM of the myometrium compared to that observed in the SC of endometrium and CM of the myometrium, respectively (P < 0.05). In summary: 1) the level of OTR mRNA in uterine tissues is higher during luteolysis compared to early pregnancy, 2) the OTR transcript level in endometrial cells did not correspond to the sensitivity of these cells to oxytocin (OT), 3) the myometrial expression of the OTR gene is appropriate to control contractile activity and secretion of PG during luteolysis.
Porcine pregnancy-associated glycoprotein genes (pPAG) are known as a multigene family, in which five members have been cloned and sequences of their cDNAs identified. Porcine PAG1 and pPAG3 genes, belonging to the pPAG1-like subfamily, both encode enzymatically inactive precursors. In contrast, cDNAs of pPAG2, pPAG4 and pPAG6 represent the pPAG2-like gene subfamily, encoding enzymatically active precursors. The objective of this study was to investigate the polymorphism of both pPAG-like gene subfamilies in the pig in comparison to other domestic species, including cattle, sheep and goat (Artiodactyla), their wild relatives (red deer and wild pig) and horse (Perissodactyla). This is the first paper indicating the polymorphism of the pPAG gene family, examined by lengths of amplified genomic fragments (PCR). Obtained PCR products were analysed in relation to five characterised cDNAs of pPAGs (pPAG1-like and/or pPAG2-like subfamilies) and according to one recognised structural exon-intron organisation of the pPAG2 gene, among at least eight pPAG2-like genes expected in the porcine genome. The highest polymorphism frequency of both pPAG1- and pPAG2-like gene subfamilies was found in the second region, exons 5 and 6 (with intron E). The length of PCR-amplified genomic fragments was approximately: 1043, 700, 600 and 193 bp. A high polymorphism frequency was found in the 3?-terminal fragment, corresponding to exons 7-9 (with introns G and H), more frequent the pPAG2-like gene subfamily. The length of PCR-amplified genomic fragments was approximately: 733, 650 and 356 bp. In contrast, PAG polymorphism was not detected in another region, encompassing exons 2-4 (with introns B and C). The length of PCR-amplified genomic fragments was approximately 279 bp in all examined genomes. In conclusion, amplification of various regions of the PAG gene family presents a relatively inexpensive PCR method of animal pre-selection with different genotypes. Such a pre-selection of animals is helpful for further gene number inquiry of the PAG gene family in each animal, then in related generations. The obtained results provide a useful background for a genetic marker preparation (by Southern analysis of the PAG family) that will presumably enable an economical early selection of young animals for effective reproduction.
Estrogen (E2) was shown to prevent experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) and to produce a novel population of regulatory CD45dimVLA-4+ cells. Although their appearance was dependent upon an elevated hormonal level, E2 was not required for their production, as they also were induced by immunization with Mycobacterium tuberculosis as a component of complete Freund's adjuvant. Materials and Methods: Molecular techniques, including ribonuclease protection assays and quantitative RT-PCR, were used to provide further characterization of CD45dimVLA-4+ cells. Moreover, we determined the developmental requirements of the CD45dimVLA-4+ cells using genetically modified mice and extensive flow cytometry analysis. Results: Characterization of CD45dimVLA-4+ mRNA profile revealed highly elevated levels of CD16, CD44, CCR3, IP-15, and IL-13 transcripts compared with their CD45highVLA-4+ counterparts. Furthermore, we found up-regulation of anti-apoptotic bcl-w and bcl-xl genes and transcripts encoding the TCR and CD8 homodimer. The production of CD45dimVLA-4+ cells was evident in nude mice and in MHC class II- and 2-microglobulin, but not in CD1-deficient mice, suggesting a crucial role for CD1 in their induction.
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This study attempts to make more accessible new methods of work with preserved sources of criminal records from the period of the Early Modern Age in the Czech environment. In line with the contemporary direction of Western European historiography, the centre of its attention is not the research of criminality as such but rather that of an actual person who could find themselves ousted to the margins of contemporary society as a result of their transgression. Therefore, one possible example of work with these sources is demonstrated through the focus upon defensive strategies of men and women on the Trebon Estate between 1650-1750.
Surfactant proteins A (SP-A) and D (SP-D) are lung surfactant-associated hydrophilic proteins which have been implicated in surfactant homeostasis and pulmonary innate immunity. They are collagen-containing C-type (calcium-dependent) lectins, called collectins, and are structurally similar to mannose-binding protein of the lectin pathway of the complement system. Being carbohydrate pattern-recognition molecules, they recognize a broad spectrum of pathogens and allergens via the lectin domain, with subsequent activation of immune cells via the collagen region, thus offering protection against infection and allergenic challenge. SP-A and SP-D have been shown to be involved in viral neutralization, clearance of bacteria, fungi, and apoptotic and necrotic cells, the down-regulation of allergic reaction, and the resolution of inflammation. Studies on single-nucleotide polymorphism, protein levels in broncho-alveolar lavage, and gene knock-out mice have clearly indicated an association between SP-A and SP-D and a range of pulmonary diseases. In addition, recent studies using murine models of allergy and infection have raised the possibility that the recombinant forms of SP-A and SP-D may have therapeutic potential in controlling pulmonary infection, inflammation, and allergies in humans.
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