Steroidogenic factor-1 hypermethylation in maternal rat blood could serve as a biomarker for intrauterine growth retardation.

Intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) is a common obstetric complication lacking an optimal method for prenatal screening. DNA methylation profile in maternal blood holds significant promise for prenatal screening. Here, we aimed to screen out potential IUGR biomarkers in maternal blood from the perspective of DNA methylation.

Developmental changes in functional expression and beta-adrenergic regulation of I(f) in the heart of mouse embryo.

The hyperpolarization-activated current (I(f)) plays an important role in determining the spontaneous rate of cardiac pacemaker cells. The automatic rhythmicity also exists in working cells of embryonic heart, therefore we studied developmental changes in functional expression and beta-adrenergic regulation of I(f) in embryonic mouse heart. The expression of I(f) is high in early developmental stage (EDS) (10.