Enzyme changes which accompany ethionine-induced resorption of the rat conceptus have been studied by both histochemical and biochemical techniques. Pregnant rats were injected with ethionine over a 3-day period prior to autopsy on day 12 of pregnancy. Sections of the whole conceptus were studied for acid phosphatase with both the Burstone and Gomori methods and for succinoxidase activity with ...

Human decidua and decidualized endometrial cells produce prolactin (PRL). Several growth factors and cytokines have been shown to regulate decidual PRL release, but a specific PRL-releasing substance remains to be characterized. Prolactin-releasing peptide (PrRP) is a peptide isolated from the brain and distinguished by its potent and specific stimulation of PRL release by cultured pituitary ce...

NOD2, one of the cytosolic proteins that contain a nuclear oligomerization domain (NOD), is a pattern recognition receptor (PRR) involved in innate immune responses to intracellular pathogens. Little is known, however, about the effect of NOD2 expression on the maternal-fetal relationship. Our aim was to elucidate the functions of NOD2 in normal decidual stromal cells (DSCs) from the first trim...

However, the notion of receptivity as a static state in which the tissue is poised, frozen in time, awaiting the arrival of an adequately developed embryo, is naïve. An integrative definition of receptivity must embrace communication between maternal and embryonic tissues. At receptivity, the endometrium has reached a point at which negotiation can begin that may or may not lead to successful i...

Natural killer (NK) cells are critical effectors in the immune response against malignancy and infection, and microRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in NK cell biology. Here we examined miRNA profiles of human NK cells from different cell compartments (peripheral blood, cord blood, and uterine deciduas) and of NKT and T cells from peripheral blood, and we identified a novel miRNA, miR-362-5p, ...

Adrenomedullin-2 (ADM2), a novel calcitonin/calcitonin-gene related peptide family with an exon-intron structure similar to that of ADM. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the role of Adrenomedullin-2 (ADM2) on fetoplacental development in female pregnant albino rats and to evaluate the effect of adrenomedullin2 antagonist (ADM21747) on fetal and placental development in late gestation...

Variation in the Storkhead box-1 (STOX1) gene has previously been associated with pre-eclampsia. In this study, we assess candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in STOX1 in an independent population cohort of pre-eclamptic (n = 1.139) and non-pre-eclamptic (n = 2.269) women (the HUNT2 study). We also compare gene expression levels of STOX1 and its paralogue, Storkhead box-2 (STOX2) in...

785 Received 5 February 2014 Accepted 5 August 2014 Abstract Background:Visfatin is adipokine originally discovered as a preB-cell colony enhancing factor, is expressed by amniotic epithelium,cytotrophoblast,and deciduas and is over expressed when fetal membrane are exposed to mechanical stress or inflammatory stimuli. Objective: To determine whether preterm labour is associated with changes in...

Signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (Stat3) has been identified as an important signal transducer in the invasive phenotype of the trophoblasts cells in in vitro studies. However, the in situ distribution and patterns of expression of this molecule in trophoblast cells during the development of the placenta are still under-elucidated. Mice uteri of gestational ages between 7 an...

Interleukin-1 (IL-1beta) beta and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) play an important role during pregnancy. Expression of non-classical class MHC II RT1-DM antigen and classical class MHC I RT1-A antigen induced by IL-1beta was examined by Northern blotting, Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. IL-1beta treatment significantly increased the expression of RT1-A and RT1-DM in early an...