Abstract Background Maternal vaccination for Influenza and Tetanus, Diphtheria, acellular Pertussis (TDaP) have been well studied in terms of safety efficacy protection the newborn by placental passage antibodies. Similar would be expected after maternal against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), virus responsible disease 2019 (COVID-19). There is a significant urgent...

T he discovery of fetal DNA in the plasma of pregnant women has led to the development of promising approaches for non-invasive prenatal diagnosis. However, as fetal and maternal DNA species co-exist in maternal plasma, these DNA based diagnostic applications depend largely on the use of genetic markers that would allow the discrimination between fetal and maternal DNA (for example, the Y chrom...

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...

BACKGROUND Detection of placental mRNA in maternal plasma has been reported in high-risk pregnancies. We attempted to investigate the concentrations of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) and tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) mRNA in maternal plasma in preeclampsia. METHODS Peripheral blood samples were obtained from healthy pregnant women before and after delivery and also from w...

In animal embryos, control of development is passed from exclusively maternal gene products to those encoded by the embryonic genome in a process referred to as the maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT). We show that the RNA-binding protein, ME31B, binds to and represses the expression of thousands of maternal mRNAs during the Drosophila MZT. However, ME31B carries out repression in different wa...

Gene downregulation by antisense morpholino oligonucleotides (MOs) is achieved by either hybridization around the translation initiation codon or by targeting the splice donor site. In the present study, an antisense MO method is introduced that uses a 25-mer MO against a region at least 40-nt upstream from a poly(A) tail junction in the 3'-untranslated region (UTR) of maternal mRNA. The MO rem...

BACKGROUND Pregnancy induces adaptations in maternal metabolism to meet the increased need for nutrients by the placenta and fetus. Creatine is an important intracellular metabolite obtained from the diet and also synthesised endogenously. Experimental evidence suggests that the fetus relies on a maternal supply of creatine for much of gestation. However, the impact of pregnancy on maternal cre...

Detection of fetal-derived DNA and RNA molecules in maternal plasma is a promising approach for noninva-sive prenatal diagnosis (1). Analysis of circulating fetal RNA, unlike analysis of fetal Y-chromosomal DNA, can be used in pregnancies with fetuses of either gender (2). Placenta-derived mRNA species are readily detectable in maternal plasma (2). The fetal hematopoietic compartment may be ano...

The xCR1 protein is a maternal determinant and cofactor for nodal signaling in vertebrate embryos. The xCR1 protein accumulates specifically in the animal cells of Xenopus embryos, but maternal xCR1 mRNA is distributed equally throughout all embryonic cells. Here, we show that vegetal cell-specific translational repression of xCR1 mRNA contributes to this spatially restricted accumulation of th...