Prior Spontaneous or Induced Abortion Is a Risk Factor for Cervical Dysfunction in Pregnant Women: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

A history of abortion is associated with cervical dysfunction during pregnancy, but there remains uncertainty about whether risk can be stratified by the abortion type, the abortion procedure, or number of previous abortions. The objective of this study was to verify the relationship between cervical dysfunction measures in pregnancies with and without a history of termination. Embase and Medline databases were searched from 01 January 1960 to 01 March 2022 resulting in a full-text review of 28 studies.

DNA Methylation Changes in Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Patients.

Background: Blood cancers may be potentially cured with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT); however, standard pre-assessments for transplant eligibility do not capture all contributing factors for transplant outcomes. Epigenetic biomarkers predict outcomes in various diseases. This pilot study aims to explore epigenetic changes (epigenetic age and differentially methylated genes) in patients before and after autologous HCT, that can serve as potential biomarkers to better predict HCT outcomes.

A machine learning model in predicting hemodynamically significant coronary artery disease: A prospective cohort study.

Background: Coronary artery disease (CAD) costs healthcare billions of dollars annually and is the leading cause of death despite available noninvasive diagnostic tools.

Objective: This study aims to examine the usefulness of machine learning in predicting hemodynamically significant CAD using routine demographics, clinical factors, and laboratory data.

Methods: Consecutive patients undergoing cardiac catheterization between March 17, 2015, and July 15, 2016, at UNC Chapel Hill were screened for comorbidities and CAD risk factors.

Study protocol to quantify the genetic architecture of sonographic cervical length and its relationship to spontaneous preterm birth.

Introduction: A short cervix (cervical length <25 mm) in the midtrimester (18-24 weeks) of pregnancy is a powerful predictor of spontaneous preterm delivery. Although the biological mechanisms of cervical change during pregnancy have been the subject of extensive investigation, little is known about whether genes influence the length of the cervix, or the extent to which genetic factors contribute to premature cervical shortening. Defining the genetic architecture of cervical length is foundational to understanding the aetiology of a short cervix and its contribution to an increased risk of spontaneous preterm delivery.

Length of Preprocedure Fasting Was Associated With Contrast Associated-Acute Kidney Injury in High-Risk Patients Undergoing Coronary Angiography.

Hydration is recommended to prevent contrast associated-acute kidney injury (CA-AKI) but interactions between blood pressure, left ventricular end diastolic pressure (LVEDP) and hydration status on CA-AKI are incompletely understood. This analysis presents the results of a single-center prospective study of patients undergoing coronary angiography with a predicted risk of CA-AKI >14%. 146 patients were enrolled with a mean (±SD) age of 71 ± 11 years; 94 (64.

A Primer on DNA Methylation and Its Potential to Impact Maternal Depression Risk and Assessment During Pregnancy and the Postpartum.

Depression onset during and after pregnancy is prevalent and associated with significant implications for maternal, child, and family health. Although environmental risk factors important to the expression of pregnancy-related depression are well known, knowledge of the genetic underpinning is limited. Given the joint contribution of environmental and genetic factors to depression risk liability, DNA methylation presents itself as an ideal biomarker to investigate basic mechanisms and opportunities for translational research to care for pregnancy-related depression health outcomes.

Harnessing mobile genetic elements to explore gene regulation.

Sequences that regulate expression of a gene in but are located at large distances along the DNA from the gene, as found with most developmentally regulated genes in higher vertebrates, are difficult to identify if those sequences are not conserved across species. Mutating suspected gene-regulatory sequences to alter expression then becomes a hit-or-miss affair. The relaxed specificity of transposon insertions offers an opportunity to develop alternate strategies, to scan in an unbiased manner, pieces of chromosomal DNA cloned in BACs for transcription enhancing elements.

Identifying Distal -acting Gene-Regulatory Sequences by Expressing BACs Functionalized with loxP-Tn10 Transposons in Zebrafish.

Bacterial Artificial Chromosomes (BACs) are large pieces of DNA from the chromosomes of organisms propagated faithfully in bacteria as large extra-chromosomal plasmids. Expression of genes contained in BACs can be monitored after functionalizing the BAC DNA with reporter genes and other sequences that allow stable maintenance and propagation of the DNA in the new host organism. The DNA in BACs can be altered within its bacterial host in several ways.

Using BAC transgenesis in zebrafish to identify regulatory sequences of the amyloid precursor protein gene in humans.

Background: Non-coding DNA in and around the human Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) gene that is central to Alzheimer's disease (AD) shares little sequence similarity with that of appb in zebrafish. Identifying DNA domains regulating expression of the gene in such situations becomes a challenge. Taking advantage of the zebrafish system that allows rapid functional analyses of gene regulatory sequences, we previously showed that two discontinuous DNA domains in zebrafish appb are important for expression of the gene in neurons: an enhancer in intron 1 and sequences 28-31 kb upstream of the gene.

Generating libraries of iTol2-end insertions at BAC ends using loxP and lox511 Tn10 transposons.

Background: Bacterial Artificial Chromosomes (BACs) have been widely used as transgenes in vertebrate model systems such as mice and zebrafish, for a variety of studies. BAC transgenesis has been a powerful tool to study the function of the genome, and gene regulation by distal cis-regulatory elements. Recently, BAC transgenesis in both mice and zebrafish was further facilitated by development of the transposon-mediated method using the Tol2 element.