[Sperm DNA damage and male infertility].

Conventional semen analysis is a poor predictor of reproductive outcome. There is a lot of evidence that sperm DNA fragmentation tests can differentiate fertile from infertile men. DNA damage can be due to intrinsic (e.

Sequence variation in the ATP8B1 gene and intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy.

Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is a cholestatic condition that may affect women during the third trimester of pregnancy. Symptoms experienced by these women generally resolve spontaneously following delivery, but prior to delivery the fetus is at increased risk of intrauterine distress and sudden intrauterine death. The genetic etiology of most cases of ICP is unknown, although heterozygous carriers of mutations causing progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC) diseases may experience ICP.

Genetic evidence of heterogeneity in intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy.

Background And Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate the genetic aetiology of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) and the impact of known cholestasis genes (BSEP, FIC1, and MDR3) on the development of this disease.

Patients And Methods: Sixty nine Finnish ICP patients were prospectively interviewed for a family history of ICP, and clinical features were compared in patients with familial ICP (patients with a positive family history, n=11) and sporadic patients (patients with no known family history of ICP, n=58). For molecular genetic analysis, 16 individuals from two independently ascertained Finnish ICP families were genotyped for the flanking markers for BSEP, FIC1, and MDR3.

Intrinsic synaptic circuitry of the amygdala.

The present study is part of an ongoing project aimed at understanding the electrophysiologic properties of single amygdaloid neurons and their correlations with the morphology of the somata as well as axonal and dendritic trees. The axonal morphology of 14 three-dimensional, reconstructed spiny neurons (4 in the lateral and 10 in the basal nucleus) that were filled in vivo with intracellular injections of biocytin is described. Three-dimensional reconstruction was performed using Neurolucida software (MicroBrightField).