Search results for "Embryonic Structures"

Data from: Surrounding pathogens shape maternal egg care but not egg production in the European earwig

2017

Pathogens are ubiquitous in nature and typically entail major fitness costs in their hosts. These costs can be particularly important when individuals exhibit poor immune defenses, as it is often the case during early developmental stages. Hence, selection should favor parental strategies limiting the risks of pathogen exposure and infection in their offspring. In this study, we investigated 1) whether females of the European earwig Forficula auricularia avoid areas contaminated with spores of the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium brunneum prior to and at egg laying, as well as 2) whether spore presence entails an increase in females’ investment into both pre-hatching forms of care and cl…

Data from: Mother and offspring fitness in an insect with maternal care: phenotypic trade-offs between egg number, egg mass and egg care

2014

Background: Oviparous females have three main options to increase their reproductive success: investing into egg number, egg mass and/or egg care. Although allocating resources to either of these three components is known to shape offspring number and size, potential trade-offs among them may have key impacts on maternal and offspring fitness. Here, we tested the occurrence of phenotypic trade-offs between egg number, egg mass and maternal expenditure on egg care in the European earwig, Forficula auricularia, an insect with pre- and post-hatching forms of maternal care. In particular, we used a series of laboratory observations and experiments to investigate whether these three components n…

Data from: The role of partial incubation and egg repositioning within the clutch in hatching asynchrony and subsequent effects on breeding success

2019

The main mechanism to achieve hatching asynchrony (HA) for incubating birds is to start heating the eggs before clutch completion. This might be achieved through partial incubation and/or early incubation. Even in the absence of incubation behaviour during the laying phase, clutches still experience a certain degree of asynchrony. Recent studies have shown that eggs located in the centre of the nest receive more heat than peripheral ones during incubation. Since eggs receiving more heat would develop faster, we hypothesised that HA should be shorter in nests where eggs were moved homogeneously along the centre-periphery space during incubation compared to those nests where eggs repeatedly r…

Demonstration of P29, an oestrogen receptor-associated tumor marker, in human term placenta.

1991

A Mr29,000 serine phosphoprotein (P29) related to oestradiol receptor was studied in human term placenta with the use of a specific monoclonal antibody (D5). D5 was used with two different methods, immunohistochemistry and immunoradiometry. For immunohistochemistry, an indirect immunoperoxidase method was chosen to detect P29 in methacarn-fixed, wax-embedded sections. P29 was mostly confined to the syncytiotrophoblast surrounding placental villi, staining being positive in both cytoplasm and nuclei. The stroma of villi was negative. Content of P29 was uniformly high in crude placental cytosol, as measured by immunoradiometry assays. Specificity of D5 against P29 in placenta was tested by an…

Association of first trimester fetal heart rate and nuchal translucency with preterm birth.

2021

To evaluate whether first trimester fetal heart rate (FHR) and nuchal translucency (NT) associate with preterm birth (PTB).This was a comparative case-control study of 518 normal pregnancies with no history of PTB, of which 272 delivered at term (TB) and 246 progressed to spontaneous PTB prior to 37, 34, 32, and 28 weeks. Fetal heart rate (FHR) and NT values at the first-trimester scan were compared by means of univariable (Mann-Whitney) and multivariable logistic regression analysis considering hourglass membranes (HM) as the most severe PTB subgroup. Finally, severity trends for both parameters were investigated using correlations with gestational age (GA) at delivery and Kruskal-Walls te…

2020

Background: ABCB1 (P-glycoprotein) and ABCG2 (breast cancer resistance protein) are co-localized at the blood-brain barrier (BBB), where they restrict the brain distribution of many different drugs. Moreover, ABCB1 and possibly ABCG2 play a role in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) by mediating the brain clearance of beta-amyloid (Aβ) across the BBB. This study aimed to compare the abundance and activity of ABCG2 in a commonly used β-amyloidosis mouse model (APP/PS1-21) with age-matched wild-type mice. Methods: The abundance of ABCG2 was assessed by semi-quantitative immunohistochemical analysis of brain slices of APP/PS1-21 and wild-type mice aged 6 months. Moreover, the brain distribution of two d…

Medical abortion: Teratogenic effects of misoprostol.

2015

Some 40 million abortions are performed around the world every year. In Spain, this figure reached 112,390 in 2011. Of these, approximately 5% were medical abortions. This percentage varies widely ...

Levels of thrombopoietin in aqueous humor of patients with noninfectious acute anterior uveitis

2015

José-Juan Mondejar,1,4 David Salom,1,3 Salvador Garcia-Delpech,1,2 Manuel Diaz-Llopis11Ophthalmology Department, School of Medicine, University of Valencia, 2Ophthalmology Department, Hospital Universitario La Fe, 3Ophthalmology Department, Hospital de Manises, Valencia, 4Ophthalmology Department, Hospital General Universitario de Alicante, Alicante, SpainPurpose: To measure thrombopoietin (TPO) levels in the serum and aqueous humors of patients with noninfectious acute anterior uveitis.Methods: A prospective, comparative, controlled study. Serum and aqueous humors were obtained from the eyes of 16 patients with noninfectious acute anterior uveitis. TPO levels were measu…

Human endometrial CD98 is essential for blastocyst adhesion.

2010

Background Understanding the molecular basis of embryonic implantation is of great clinical and biological relevance. Little is currently known about the adhesion receptors that determine endometrial receptivity for embryonic implantation in humans. Methods and Principal Findings Using two human endometrial cell lines characterized by low and high receptivity, we identified the membrane receptor CD98 as a novel molecule selectively and significantly associated with the receptive phenotype. In human endometrial samples, CD98 was the only molecule studied whose expression was restricted to the implantation window in human endometrial tissue. CD98 expression was restricted to the apical surfac…

Computerized analysis of normal fetal heart rate pattern throughout gestation.

2009

Objective To analyze the evolution of computerized cardiotocography (cCTG) parameters throughout gestation in a large archive of traces from healthy fetuses. Methods This was a cross-sectional study of the first cCTG record from 4412 singleton fetuses with good pregnancy outcome. Normal ranges of cCTG parameters for 25 to 42 weeks were derived from analysis of only one cCTG record per fetus, and the relationship between the parameters and gestational age was investigated. Results Fetal heart rate (FHR) accelerations, short- and long-term variation overall, duration of episodes of high and low variation and variation in high episodes increased with advancing gestation. In contrast, maternal …