Genetic screening of regulatory regions of pituitary transcription factors in patients with idiopathic pituitary hormone deficiencies.

Purpose: Mutation frequencies of PROP1, POU1F1 and HESX1 in patients with combined pituitary hormone deficiencies (CPHD) vary substantially between populations. They are low in sporadic CPHD patients in Western Europe. However, most clinicians still routinely send DNA of their CPHD patients for genetic screening of these pituitary transcription factors.

A universal method for sequential immunofluorescent analysis of chromatin and chromatin-associated proteins on chromosome spreads.

Immunofluorescence has been widely used to study histone modification dynamics and chromosome-associated proteins that regulate the segregation of chromosomes during cell divisions. Since many of these regulatory proteins interact (in)directly to exert their proper function, it is of interest to detect these proteins simultaneously, to establish their spatiotemporal relation. However, the detection of multiple epitopes on the same material is limited by the availability of antibodies derived from different host species.

Human amnion epithelial cells reduce fetal brain injury in response to intrauterine inflammation.

Intrauterine infection, such as occurs in chorioamnionitis, is a principal cause of preterm birth and is a strong risk factor for neurological morbidity and cerebral palsy. This study aims to examine whether human amnion epithelial cells (hAECs) can be used as a potential therapeutic agent to reduce brain injury induced by intra-amniotic administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in preterm fetal sheep. Pregnant ewes underwent surgery at approximately 110 days of gestation (term is approx.