Teratogenicity induced by targeting a placental immunoglobulin transporter

Protective effect of quercetin on skeletal and neural tube teratogenicity induced by cyclophosphamide in rat fetuses

Cyclophosphamide (CP) is a drug commonly used to treat neoplastic disease and some autoimmune diseases. It is also a well-known and well-studied teratogen causing a variety of birth defects in fetuses of pregnant women treated with the drug. There are many reports that show the adverse effects of CP can be decreased by use of antioxidant drugs. It appears that, quercetin has antioxidant effect....

Placental transfer of immunoglobulin G subclasses.

The concentrations in cord blood of total immunoglobulin G (IgG) and the four subclasses of IgG were measured in 34 fetuses at a mean gestational age of 25 weeks (range, 18 to 35 weeks). The blood samples were obtained by percutaneous umbilical blood sampling, and results were compared with the respective IgG subclass concentrations of the mothers. The efficiency of transplacental transfer of t...

Placental Glucose Transporter Expression Is Regulated

Although glucocorticoids play important roles in development and fetal programming, they are widely used for treatment of a variety of diseases during pregnancy. In various tissues, glucocorticoids downregulate glucose transport systems; however, their effects on glucose transporters in the placenta are unknown. In the present study, the glucose carrier proteins GLUT1 and GLUT3 were localized i...

Activation and Targeting of Immunoglobulin

Targeting Mucosal Sites by Polymeric Immunoglobulin Receptor-directed Peptides

Polymeric immunoglobulins provide first line humoral defense at mucosal surfaces to which they are specifically transported by the polymeric immunoglobulin receptor (pIgR) on mucosal and glandular epithelial cells. Previous studies from our laboratory suggested that amino acids 402-410 of the Calpha3 domain of dimeric IgA (dIgA) represented a potential binding site for the pIgR. Here by binding...