Developmental energetics: Energy expenditure, budgets and metabolism during animal embryogenesis.

Developing embryos are metabolically active, open systems that constantly exchange matter and energy with their environment. They function out of thermodynamic equilibrium and continuously use metabolic pathways to obtain energy from maternal nutrients, in order to fulfill the energetic requirements of growth and development. While an increasing number of studies highlight the role of metabolism in different developmental contexts, the physicochemical basis of embryogenesis, or how cellular processes use energy and matter to act together and transform a zygote into an adult organism, remains unknown.

Tracheal tube fusion in Drosophila involves release of extracellular vesicles from multivesicular bodies.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) comprise diverse types of cell-released membranous structures that are thought to play important roles in intercellular communication. While the formation and functions of EVs have been investigated extensively in cultured cells, studies of EVs in vivo have remained scarce. We report here that EVs are present in the developing lumen of tracheal tubes in Drosophila embryos.

The endometrial stem cell markers notch-1 and numb are associated with endometriosis.

Previous studies reported increased expression of the notch pathway-associated protein Musashi-1 in endometriosis. This case-control study investigates an association of the endometrial stem cell markers notch-1 and numb with endometriosis. Fifty-one endometriosis patients and 76 controls were recruited in the IVF unit and tertiary endometriosis referral centre of a university hospital.

Sudden cardiac arrest as a presentation of Brugada syndrome unmasked by thyroid storm.

An 18-year-old man suffered a sudden cardiac arrest with ventricular fibrillation and was successfully resuscitated. He had neither a medical nor family history of cardiac disease/sudden death, but was known to have Graves' disease, for which he was treated with radioactive iodine. Recently, block-and-replacement therapy had been discontinued to evaluate thyroid functioning.