Canadian women's attitudes toward noninvasive prenatal testing of fetal DNA in maternal plasma (.).

Objective: To determine the perceptions and attitudes of Canadian women to Noninvasive Prenatal Testing of fetal DNA.

Study Design: A designed questionnaire was administered to women attending the outpatient antenatal clinic at a tertiary urban hospital. Attitudes to current and new prenatal screening modalities were assessed using a five-point Likert scale.

An enzymatic method to determine γ-hydroxybutyric acid in serum and urine.

Background: Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) has become one of the most dangerous illicit drugs of abuse today. It is used as a recreational and date rape drug because of its depressant effect on the central nervous system, which may cause euphoria, amnesia, respiratory arrest, and coma. There is an urgent need for a simple, easy-to-use assay for GHB determination in urine and blood.

Pregnancy outcomes in women with elevated levels of fetal hemoglobin.

Objective: Elevated maternal levels of fetal hemoglobin (HbF) present a unique situation where both mother and fetus produce hemoglobin with equivalent oxygen affinities. We aimed to determine pregnancy outcomes in women with persistently elevated HbF.

Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, women with HbF levels exceeding 10% were identified by searching a provincial database.

Development and characterization of an enzymatic method for the rapid determination of gamma hydroxybutyric acid.

Gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) is a regulated therapeutic drug, which naturally occurs in mammalian brain tissues as an intermediate of the GABA (gamma aminobutyric acid) neurotransmitter metabolism. The increasing misuse of GHB as a narcotic or abusing drug in recent years calls for the development of a simple and rapid screening method as an alternative to the currently available, technically demanding diagnostic methods. We have developed a rapid enzymatic assay based on the GHB dehydrogenase of Ralstonia eutropha.

miR-15a and miR-16 are implicated in cell cycle regulation in a Rb-dependent manner and are frequently deleted or down-regulated in non-small cell lung cancer.

MicroRNAs (miRNA) are negative regulators of gene expression at the posttranscriptional level, which are involved in tumorigenesis. Two miRNAs, miR-15a and miR-16, which are located at chromosome 13q14, have been implicated in cell cycle control and apoptosis, but little information is available about their role in solid tumors. To address this question, we established a protocol to quantify miRNAs from laser capture microdissected tissues.

Function of liver activation-regulated chemokine/CC chemokine ligand 20 is differently affected by cathepsin B and cathepsin D processing.

Chemokine processing by proteases is emerging as an important regulatory mechanism of leukocyte functions and possibly also of cancer progression. We screened a large panel of chemokines for degradation by cathepsins B and D, two proteases involved in tumor progression. Among the few substrates processed by both proteases, we focused on CCL20, the unique chemokine ligand of CCR6 that is expressed on immature dendritic cells and subtypes of memory lymphocytes.

Intragenic deletion in the gene encoding L-gulonolactone oxidase causes vitamin C deficiency in pigs.

The absence of L-ascorbic acid (L-AA, or AA) synthesis in scurvy-prone organisms, including humans, other primates, guinea pigs, and flying mammals, was traced to the lack of L-gulonolactone oxidase (GULO) activity. GULO is a microsomal enzyme that catalyzes the terminal step in the biosynthesis of L-AA. Clinical cases of scurvy were described in a family of Danish pigs.