Background: The presence of cancer makes it difficult to predict the progress of pregnancy and can be deleterious to the maternal-foetal relationship. Apoptosis may affect a range of placental functions and result in the retardation of foetal growth. In this work, we investigated the placental alterations produced by tumour growth and the effects on the expression of apoptotic precursors in pla...

To determine if low dietary protein concentration in the first two trimesters of pregnancy alters placental development, genetically similar heifers from closed herd were fed diets containing different levels of protein in the first and second trimesters of gestation. There were four animals per treatment group, the groups being: L/L = fed a diet containing 7% crude protein (CP) (low protein) i...

In 1941 Levine and his colleagues postulated that the way in which Rh sensitization occurred in Rh negative mothers was by transplacental passage of Rh-positive foetal erythrocytes into the maternal circulation. At that time there were no available tech' niques for proving this hypothesis, and it was not known when the foetal cells entered the maternal circulation, nor how much foetal blood was...

is one of the major healthcare problems of the Western world. Affected individuals are often treated with statins (HMG CoA reductase inhibitors) to reduce circulating cholesterol levels and the risk of developing cardiovascular disease [1]; given the evolving demographic profile of these conditions, such drugs are increasingly prescribed to women of reproductive age. Cholesterol is essential fo...

Cloning of embryos by nuclear transplantation has been developed in several species using foetal fibroblasts as donor cells. In the present study, the developmental potential of foetal fibroblasts, arrested in metaphase stage using cytochalasinB, was evaluated using nuclear transfer. Studies were undertaken to find out suitable stage of the cell cycle of goatskin fibroblast cells with enucleate...

The 'developmental origins of adult health and disease' hypothesis stated that environmental factors, particularly maternal undernutrition, act in early life to programme the risks for adverse health outcomes, such as cardiovascular disease, obesity and the metabolic syndrome in adult life. Early physiological tradeoffs, including activation of the foetal hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axi...