activities of the key enzymes of gluconeogenesis in the liver and kidney of the foetal guinea pig have been followed. The foetal guinea pigs used had a gestational age of 68-72 days. Pyruvate carboxylase was present at very low activities in the kidney of the foetus and neonatal animal and also in the foetal liver until day 50, when it increased in activity to reach a value by day 60 of more th...

There are great concerns about the increasing incidence of abnormalities in male reproductive function. Human sperm counts have markedly dropped and the rate of testicular cancer has clearly augmented over the past four decades. Moreover, the prevalence rates of cryptorchidism and hypospadias are also probably increasing. It has been hypothesized that all these adverse trends in male reproducti...

In 1941 Wolman reviewed the data of 11 cases of congenital stenosis of the trachea and recorded one of his own. One of these cases was a stillborn child; seven of the live-born infants died under the age of 6 months. Gruber (1870) recorded the details of the stillborn case. Finkelstein (1924) described the case, cited by Wolman, where death took place at the age of 4 days; in this infant the lu...

BACKGROUND The perinatal or early life environment may influence the development of mental illness in adulthood. It is not clear how, or when, any such influences might be mediated. Foetal exposure to maternal stress in the intrauterine environment has been suggested as a possible mediator of foetal origins of mental illness but the postnatal environment may also be of importance. This study ai...

Testicular germ cell tumours, seminoma (SE) and non-seminoma (NS), of young adult men develop from a precursor cell, carcinoma in situ (CIS), which resembles foetal gonocytes and retains embryonic pluripotency. We used microarrays to analyse microRNA (miRNA) expression in 12 human testis samples with CIS cells and compared it with miRNA expression profiles of normal adult testis, testis with Se...

Maternal euthyroidism during pregnancy is crucial for normal development and, in particular, neurodevelopment of the foetus. Up to 3.5 percent of pregnant women suffer from hypothyroidism. Industrial use of various chemicals-endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs)-has been shown to cause almost constant exposure of humans with possible harmful influence on health and hormone regulation. EDCs may ...

Proteins from human adult and foetal fibroblast cell lines were compared, focusing on those involved in wound healing. Proteins were separated through two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE). Differences in protein spot intensity between the lineages were quantified through 3D gel scanning densitometry. Selected protein spots were excised, subjected to tryptic digests, prior to separation usi...

AIM The study objective was to evaluate the pathological changes of the placenta in foetal death and foetal growth restriction and to find correlation of the findings with clinical causes. SETTING AND DESIGN Prospective study at a tertiary care hospital. MATERIAL AND METHODS Gross and histopathological examinations of the placentae were carried out in pregnancies with foetal demise (IUD) an...