background: respiratory syncytical virus infection is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and viral pneumonia in infancy. objective: to investigate the placental transfer of rsv-specific igg in iranian mothers. methods: the antibodies were measured in sera of 146 mother/newborn pairs using a commercially available indirect enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (elisa). the studied subjects were ...

Embryonic hematopoiesis starts via the generation of primitive red blood cells (RBCs) that satisfy the embryo’s immediate oxygen needs. Although primitive RBCs were thought to retain their nuclei, recent studies have shown that primitive RBCs in mice enucleate in the fetal liver. It has been unknown whether human primitive RBCs enucleate, and what hematopoietic site might support this process. ...

The ultrastructure of placental bed giant cells in early human pregnancies of 7-12 weeks gestational age is described. Their nature and function was further characterized by confocal immunofluorescence microscopy of paraffin sections labelled for cytokeratin, gap junction connexins (CX) 32 or 43, and placental hormones, alpha-human chorionic gonadotrophin (alpha-HCG) and human placental lactoge...

Placental mesenchymal dysplasia (PMD) is a rare benign placental abnormality. It is characterized by hydropic degeneration of stem villi, placentomegaly, and increased maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). It can be associated with different congenital abnormalities, karyotype abnormalities, and feto-maternal morbidities. It is difficult to differentiate PMDfrom partial mole, complete mole wi...

Interspecies pregnancies between closely related species are usually performed in livestock to obtain improved and enriched offspring. Indeed, different hybrids have been obtained for research purposes since many years ago, and the maternal-fetal interactions have been studied as a possible strategy for species preservation. The aim of this study was to characterize by physiological and molecul...

Placental mesenchymal dysplasia (PMD) is a rare condition of placentomegaly and abnormal chorionic villi often clinically mistakenly as partial hydatidiform mole. However, it is clinicopathologically distinct with high incidence of intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and fetal death. This study presents 11 new PMD cases and provides a meta-analysis of the associated IUGR and fetal death rate...

Embryonic hematopoiesis starts via the generation of primitive red blood cells (RBCs) that satisfy the embryo's immediate oxygen needs. Although primitive RBCs were thought to retain their nuclei, recent studies have shown that primitive RBCs in mice enucleate in the fetal liver. It has been unknown whether human primitive RBCs enucleate, and what hematopoietic site might support this process. ...

The robust and tissue-specific activation of the human growth hormone (hGH) gene cluster in the pituitary and placenta constitutes an informative model for analysis of gene regulation. The five-gene hGH cluster is regulated by two partially overlapping sets of DNase I hypersensitive sites (HSs) that constitute the pituitary (HSI, II, III and V) and placental (HSIII, IV, and V) locus control reg...

Placental 11b-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11b-HSD) regulates transplacental passage of maternal glucocorticoids to the fetus and is thus a key determinant of fetal glucocorticoid levels. It has also been proposed that placental 11b-HSD expression may influence local glucocorticoid actions by regulating access of corticosterone to the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) or mineralocorticoid receptor ...