Preterm birth is the single leading cause of perinatal mortality in developed countries, affecting approximately 12% of pregnancies and accounting for 75% of neonatal loss in the United States. Despite the prevalence and severity of premature delivery, the causes and mechanisms that underlie spontaneous and idiopathic preterm birth remain unknown. Our inability to elucidate these fundamental ca...

Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) is an important growth regulator of the embryonic day (E)9-E11 mouse. In comparably aged rat embryos, VIP messenger RNA (mRNA) is not detectable; however, peak concentrations of VIP in maternal rat serum indicate a nonembryonic source. In the current study, mouse maternal and embryonic tissues were examined from E6-E12. Although RT-PCR revealed VIP mRNA in E6...

Placenta formation occurs through a complex and coordinated effort between the fetus’s extraembryonic tissues and the gravid endometrial tissues. Many macrophages are present in the placenta throughout pregnancy and have been detected as early as day 10 of pregnancy (Chang et al., 1993). Placental macrophages include Hofbauer cells of the fetal chorionic villi and decidual macrophages of the ma...

Alzheimer's disease is characterized by the degeneration and loss of cholinergic neurones in the nucleus basalis Meynert, located within the substantia innominata at the ventral surface of the basal forebrain. An in vivo measure of morphological changes in the nucleus basalis Meynert would be of high relevance to better understand the structural correlate of cholinergic dysfunction in Alzheimer...

Introduction: Previous studies have shown that exercise enhances cognitive and functional capacities in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we investigated the effect of long-term (60 days) and short- term (10 days) exercise on the spatial memory deficits in an animal model of AD. Methods: Fifty male rats were divided into 5 groups 1) intact, 2) sham, 3) sham-Alzheimer 4) ...

Eight species of the genus Amblypsilopus Bigot are now recorded from Vietnam. The following two new species are described: Amblypsilopus lacduonganus sp. nov. and A. longus sp. nov. Two species, A. basalis Yang and A. capitatus Yang, are newly reported from Vietnam. A key to the species of the genus from Vietnam is provided.

Several lines of evidence indicate that cholinergic basalis neurons play an important role in cortical activation. The present study was undertaken to determine the effect of noradrenergic and serotonergic modulation of the cholinergic neurons on cortical EEG activity and sleep-wake states. The neurotransmitters were injected into the region of the basalis neurons by remote control in freely mo...

Loss of nerve cells from temporal cortex, hippocampus, nucleus basalis of Meynert and locus caeruleus was measured in 32 patients with Alzheimer's disease ranging from 48 to 92 years of age. Similar changes were present within the cerebral cortex and within the two subcortical structures.

Surveys for egg-parasitoid wasps were conducted in Rafsanjan, Iran, on two species of Pentatomidae (Hemiptera) found pistachio orchards, Acrosternum arabicum Wagner and Brachynema signatum Jakovlev. Five Scelionidae (Platygastroidea) recovered, including one that is here described as new: Psix saccharicola (Mani), Trissolcus colemani (Crawford), T. darreh Talamas sp. nov. , perepelovi (Kozlov),...