Evaluation of the VISAGE basic tool for appearance and ancestry inference using ForenSeq® chemistry on the MiSeq FGx® system.

The possibility of providing investigative leads when conventional DNA identification methods fail to solve a case can be of extreme relevance to law enforcement. Therefore, the forensic genetics community has focused research towards the broadened use of DNA, particularly for prediction of appearance traits, bio-geographical ancestry and age. The VISible Attributes through GEnomics (VISAGE) Consortium expanded the use of DNA phenotyping by developing new molecular and statistical tools for appearance, age and ancestry prediction.

Severe perioperative morbidity after robot-assisted versus conventional laparoscopy in gynecologic oncology: Results of the randomized ROBOGYN-1004 trial.

Objective: In gynecologic oncology, minimally invasive surgery using conventional laparoscopy (CL) decreases the incidence of severe morbidity compared to open surgery. In 2005, robot-assisted laparoscopy (RL) was approved for use in gynecology in the US. This study aimed to assess whether RL is superior to CL in terms of morbidity incidence.

Sequenced-based French population data from 169 unrelated individuals with Verogen's ForenSeq DNA signature prep kit.

Massively Parallel Sequencing (MPS) applied to forensic genetics allows the simultaneous analysis of hundreds of genetic markers and the access to full amplicon sequences which help to increase available allele diversity. Meanwhile, sequence variation within the repeat regions represents the majority of the allele diversity, flanking regions adjacent to the repeat core provide an additional degree of variation. The forensic genetics community needs access to population data, from relevant parts of the world that contain this new sequence diversity in order to perform statistical calculations.

Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Experiments from Whole Embryos or Larval Imaginal Discs.

Chromatin Immunoprecipitation coupled either to qPCR (qChIP) or high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-Seq) has been extensively used in the last decades to identify the DNA binding sites of transcription factors or the localization of various histone marks along the genome. The ChIP experiment generally includes 7 steps: collection of biological samples (A), cross-linking proteins to DNA (B), chromatin isolation and fragmentation by sonication (C), sonication test (D), immunoprecipitation with antibodies against the protein or the histone mark of interest (E), DNA recovery (E), identification of factor-associated DNA sequences by PCR or sequencing (F). The protocol described here can readily be used for ChIP-seq and ChIP-qPCR experiments.

Coordinate redeployment of PRC1 proteins suppresses tumor formation during Drosophila development.

Polycomb group proteins form two main complexes, PRC2 and PRC1, which generally coregulate their target genes. Here we show that PRC1 components act as neoplastic tumor suppressors independently of PRC2 function. By mapping the distribution of PRC1 components and trimethylation of histone H3 at Lys27 (H3K27me3) across the genome, we identify a large set of genes that acquire PRC1 in the absence of H3K27me3 in Drosophila larval tissues.

Polycomb: a paradigm for genome organization from one to three dimensions.

Polycomb group proteins are important transcriptional repressors in developmental control, both stably silencing genes out of their appropriate lineage, and conferring dynamic regulation of genes whose expression changes in response to developmental cues. Polycomb is a key organizer of the linear epigenome, forming distinct chromatin domains of associated histone modifications, and fine-tuning the activities of genetic elements. Polycomb also modulates three-dimensional genome architecture by the formation of regulatory chromatin loops and coalescing target genes at discrete nuclear foci.

[Fatal amniotic fluid embolism. Extraction by Caesarean section of a living child without neurological after-effects].

The authors report on the case of an amniotic fluid embolism, proven by post mortem, which was the result of an inaugural and irreversible cardiac arrest in a 37-year-old woman at 39 weeks of normal pregnancy. The Caesarean section was carried out as an extreme emergency in the labour room, while efforts were being made to resuscitate the mother, so as to deliver a living newborn without any neurological after-effects. The haemostatic consequences were showed up only on blood tests.

[What role should hysterectomy play in benign uterine lesions?].

Since the beginning of the nineties, we have seen an increase in the use of operative hysteroscopy in the surgical treatment of women with dysfunctional uterine bleeding. The aim of this article is to show that these new techniques are surgical acts subject to complications, failures, morbidity and indeed mortality. It seems therefore reasonable to ask whether vaginal hysterectomy represents a good alternative to endometrial ablation.

[Enterocele. Retrospective study of 134 cases: risk factors and comparison between abdominal and perineal routes].

Objective: Our purpose was to assess etiological factors in enterocele and to compare abdominal sacral colpopexy with mesh and resection of the cul-de-sac of Douglas to transvaginal sacrospinous colpopexy.

Methods: A retrospective study, for 20 years, concerned 134 patients clinically proved enterocele confirmed during the operation.

Results: Etiological factors were: multiparity, perineal tear, foetal macrosomia, instrumental extractions, antecedents of gynaecologic operations, tissular and constitutional factors.

[Steinert's disease and pregnancy. A case report and recent literature].

Steinert's disease or myotonic dystrophy is a heredo-degenerative neuroendocrinal dystrophy. It is an autosomal dominant disorder. The arising of a congenital myotonic dystrophy of one of the new-born children of the maternity hospital enabled to diagnose the Steinert's disease of his mother.

[Delay of the formation of retroperitoneal fibrosis after lymphadenectomy. An experimental study].

The goal of our study was to evaluate peritoneal and retroperitoneal healing and therefore to assess the optimal date for surgery after laparoscopic lymphadenectomy. A para-aortic lymphadenectomy was carried out in 5 groups of 5 New Zealand female rabbits. The perivascular cicatricial tissue was dissected after specific delay for each group (48 hours, 1 week, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, and 6 weeks).