Relationship between Genital Detection with Semen Concentration and Motility among Greek Men.

One hundred and seventy two men at the State of Thessaly, Greece, inquiring semen analysis were enrolled in the study in order to investigate the incidence of (C-U-M) genera in respect to total sperm number (TSN), progressive motility (grades a and b) and total motility (grades a, b and c). Putative relation of C-U-M acquirement with sexual behavior was also investigated. Incidence of C-U-M among non-oligozoospermic and oligozoospermic men was similar.

TLR4 gene polymorphisms: evidence for protection against type 2 diabetes but not for diabetes-associated ischaemic heart disease.

Objective: Several factors either predisposing or protecting from the onset of diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2) have been proposed. Two specific polymorphisms of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4; Asp299Gly and Thr399Ile) have recently been identified either as candidate protector genes against DM2 and associated neuropathy or risk alleles for the manifestation of diabetic retinopathy. The impact of these alleles on the risk for ischaemic heart disease (IHD) is controversial while their role in diabetes-associated IHD has never been studied.

Plasma placental RNA allelic ratio permits noninvasive prenatal chromosomal aneuploidy detection.

Current methods for prenatal diagnosis of chromosomal aneuploidies involve the invasive sampling of fetal materials using procedures such as amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling and constitute a finite risk to the fetus. Here, we outline a strategy for fetal chromosome dosage assessment that can be performed noninvasively through analysis of placental expressed mRNA in maternal plasma. We achieved noninvasive prenatal diagnosis of fetal trisomy 21 by determining the ratio between alleles of a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in PLAC4 mRNA, which is transcribed from chromosome 21 and expressed by the placenta, in maternal plasma.