Association between situs inversus and maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection at gestational age 4-6 weeks.

Background: A dramatic increase in fetal situs inversus diagnoses by ultrasound in the months following the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) surge of December 2022 in China led us to investigate whether maternal SARS-CoV-2 exposure could be associated with elevated risk of fetal situs inversus.

Methods: In this multi-institutional, hospital-based, matched case-control study, we investigated pregnant women who underwent ultrasonographic fetal biometric assessment at gestational weeks 20-24 at our hospitals. Each pregnant woman carrying a situs inversus fetus was randomly matched with four controls based on the date of confinement.

RGCC balances self-renewal and neuronal differentiation of neural stem cells in the developing mammalian neocortex.

During neocortical development, neural stem cells (NSCs) divide symmetrically to self-renew at the early stage and then divide asymmetrically to generate post-mitotic neurons. The molecular mechanisms regulating the balance between NSC self-renewal and neurogenesis are not fully understood. Using mouse in utero electroporation (IUE) technique and in vitro human NSC differentiation models including cerebral organoids (hCOs), we show here that regulator of cell cycle (RGCC) modulates NSC self-renewal and neuronal differentiation by affecting cell cycle regulation and spindle orientation.