Timing of referral for prenatal genetic counselling.

Objective: To evaluate the timing of referrals for prenatal genetic counselling.

Method: The data of 406 consecutive patients referred because of a family history of genetic disease or a suspected risk factor for genetic disease other than an unfavourable first trimester screening outcome were retrospectively analysed.

Results: In 37.

The first trimester human trophoblast cell line ACH-3P: a novel tool to study autocrine/paracrine regulatory loops of human trophoblast subpopulations--TNF-alpha stimulates MMP15 expression.

Background: The trophoblast compartment of the placenta comprises various subpopulations with distinct functions. They interact among each other by secreted signals thus forming autocrine or paracrine regulatory loops. We established a first trimester trophoblast cell line (ACH-3P) by fusion of primary human first trimester trophoblasts (week 12 of gestation) with a human choriocarcinoma cell line (AC1-1).