[The new frontiers of patent foramen ovale].

Several evidences support the hypothesis that patent foramen ovale (PFO), especially when associated with specific anatomical features, relates to an increased incidence of paradoxical embolism including ischemic stroke. According to current guidelines, clinicians may offer percutaneous closure of PFO in rare circumstances, such as recurrent strokes despite adequate medical therapy with no other mechanism identified (American Academy of Neurology 2016) or deep venous thrombosis at high risk of recurrence (American Heart Association/American Stroke Association 2014).Recently, a device that allows percutaneous suturing of PFO with polypropylene stitches has been introduced.

Temporal requirement of Hoxa2 in cranial neural crest skeletal morphogenesis.

Little is known about the spatiotemporal requirement of Hox gene patterning activity in vertebrates. In Hoxa2 mouse mutants, the hyoid skeleton is replaced by a duplicated set of mandibular and middle ear structures. Here, we show that Hoxa2 is selectively required in cranial neural crest cells (NCCs).

Undulated short-tail deletion mutation in the mouse ablates Pax1 and leads to ectopic activation of neighboring Nkx2-2 in domains that normally express Pax1.

Previous studies have indicated that the Undulated short-tail deletion mutation in mouse Pax1 (Pax1(Un-s)) not only ablates Pax1, but also disturbs a gene or genes nearby Pax1. However, which gene(s) is involved and how the Pax1(Un-s) phenotype is confined to the Pax1-positive tissues remain unknown. In the present study, we determined the Pax1(Un-s) deletion interval to be 125 kb and characterized genes around Pax1.