Academic conflict of interest.

Purpose: We set out to summarize the current challenges in academic conflict of interest.

Methods: This is a narrative review by a multidisciplinary, multinational panel of academic officers including deans of medical/pharmacy schools.

Results And Conclusions: Disclosing conflict of interest has become the appropriate professional behavior since the 1990s in response to the necessity to fix moral and financial fences around medical activities.

Prevention against malaria before the first antenatal visit and absence of anaemia at the first visit were protective from low birth weight: results from a South Kivu cohort, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Background: There is little information on the causes of low birth weight (LBW, <2500 g) in South Kivu. The authors determined the prevalence of LBW among full-term newborns, and its relationship with malaria and anaemia at the first antenatal visit (ANV1) in the rural health zone of Miti-Murhesa, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Methods: Four-hundred-and-seventy-eight pregnant women in the second trimester attending their first antenatal clinic were recruited between November 2010 and July 2011, and followed-up until delivery.

Malaria Is More Prevalent Than Iron Deficiency among Anemic Pregnant Women at the First Antenatal Visit in Rural South Kivu.

Anemia is common during pregnancy and is associated with poor outcomes. Objectives were not only 1) to determine the prevalence of anemia and iron deficiency (ID) but also 2) to identify other factors associated with anemia in pregnant women from South Kivu province, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Between December 2013 and March 2014, 531 women attending the first antenatal visit in their second trimester of pregnancy were recruited.

Detection of K(ATP) channels subunits in human term placental explants and evaluation of their implication in human placental lactogen (hPL) and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) release.

Introduction: ATP-sensitive potassium channels (KATP channels) have been identified in a variety of tissues. Nevertheless, the presence and role of such metabolism-sensitive K+ channels still remain to be unraveled in the reproductive system.

Methods: The study evaluates the presence of KATP channel subunits in human term placental explants by immunohistochemistry, proximity ligation assay, Western blot and RT-PCR techniques.

Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine resistance and intermittent preventive treatment during pregnancy: a retrospective analysis of birth weight data in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Objective: To assess the effect of intermittent preventive treatment with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (IPTp-SP) on birth weight in sites with varying degrees of drug resistance.

Methods: Birth weight data from three regions in Democratic Republic of Congo with varying degrees of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) resistance (1.6% in Mikalayi, 21.

Improved methodology for the detection and quantification of the acrosome reaction in mouse spermatozoa.

This study evaluates the use of two fluorescein-labelled (FITC) plant lectins, Pisum sativum (edible pea) agglutinin (PSA) and Arachis hypogaea (peanut) agglutinin (PNA), in order to determine the most accurate and reliable method to experimentally detect and assess the acrosome reaction in mouse spermatozoa. PNA-FITC labelling was restricted to the acrosome and was not influenced by the fixation procedure; either absolute methanol or paraformaldehyde. In contrast, PSA-FITC not only labelled the acrosome, but also the whole head and the flagellum.

KATP channel subunits are expressed in the epididymal epithelium in several mammalian species.

Adenosine triphosphate-sensitive K(++) (K(ATP)) channels are poorly characterized in the reproductive tract. The present study was designed to evaluate the putative expression of K(ATP) channel subunits (Kir6.x and SURx) in the epididymis from different mammalian species.

[Elderly people's sexuality].

In a context of ageing human population, the question of the elderly people's sexuality, a recent phenomenon, remains without precise and obvious answer. Still, the sexuality of the older person must be viewed as the continuation of the adult's sexuality. However, it is partially or completely, depending on gender, dissociated from the concept of reproduction.

Possible role of carbonic anhydrase in rat pancreatic islets: enzymatic, secretory, metabolic, ionic, and electrical aspects.

The presence of carbonic anhydrase (type V) was recently documented in rat and mouse pancreatic islet beta-cells by immunostaining and Western blotting. In the present study, the activity of carbonic anhydrase was measured in rat islet homogenates and shown to be about four times lower than in rat parotid cells. The pattern for the inhibitory action of acetazolamide on carbonic anhydrase activity also differed in islet and parotid cell homogenates, suggesting the presence of different isoenzymes.

Evidence for a clathrin-mediated recycling of albumin in human term placenta.

During human pregnancy, the trophoblast layer is in direct contact with maternal albumin. In contrast to immunoglobulins, albumin does not cross the placental barrier. However, albumin affects the trophoblast placental lactogen and chorionic gonadotroph secretion.

Iodine deficiency mitigates growth retardation and osteopenia in selenium-deficient rats.

Selenium deficiency is associated with impaired bone metabolism and osteopenia in rats. However, it is not known how combined selenium and iodine deficiency affects bone metabolism. Therefore, we investigated the effect of selenium and iodine deficiency on bone metabolism in 2nd-generation selenium- and iodine-deficient rats.

Effect of IPs, cAMP, and cGMP on the hPL and hCG secretion from human term placenta.

The acute control of human placental lactogen (hPL) and chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) secretion by the placenta remains elusive. The in vitro release of both hormones can be stimulated by calcium inflow and by albumin. To investigate the placental secretory response to putative ligand(s) present in the maternal circulation, we evaluated the coupling of the hPL and hCG releases from term placenta with intracellular signaling pathways.

Colloidal effect of albumin on the placental lactogen and chorionic gonadotrophin releases from human term placental explants.

Albumin has been reported to stimulate the release of placental lactogen and chorionic gonadotrophin from human term placental explants within physiological concentrations. This study aimed at characterizing further its effect on the placental hormonal secretion. The placental lactogen and chorionic gonadotrophin secretory response of incubated explants to 5% albumin was reproduced by colloidal agents, i.

Invertase, maltase, lactase, and peroxidase activities in duodenum of BB rats.

The development of immune-mediated diabetes in BB rats may involve a defect of the gastrointestinal tract (GI), as suggested by increased gut permeability. This study aimed at measuring invertase, maltase, lactase, and peroxidase activities in the duodenum of diabetesprone BioBreeding (BBdp) rats and control BioBreeding rats (BBc) given free access to NIH-07 diet up to the time of killing at 60 66 d of age. After washing the entire small intestine, the duodenal mucosa was scraped off in the first 5-cm segment from the pylorus and frozen in distilled water.

Stimulation of Kaposi's sarcoma cell growth by urine from women in early pregnancy, the current source for clinical-grade human chorionic gonadotropin preparations.

Clinical-grade preparations of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) have been shown to be toxic to Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) cells. However, the results of clinical studies using commercial hCG preparations KS remain highly contradictory. More particularly, some hCG preparations could have a paradoxical growth effect on KS.

Treatment of Kaposi's sarcoma with human chorionic gonadotropin.

Clinical-grade preparations of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) have been shown to be toxic to Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) cells. However, the mechanism of the anti-KS activity achieved with these preparations remains unclear. The results of clinical studies using commercial hCG preparations in human KS are also highly contradictory.

Physiological concentrations of albumin stimulate chorionic gonadotrophin and placental lactogen release from human term placental explants.

This study investigates whether albumin, a major plasma protein in direct contact with the trophoblast in vivo, can modulate human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) and human placental lactogen (HPL) releases from placental explants. Incubating explants with a near physiological, i.e.

Maturation of the auditory system in clinically normal puppies as reflected by the brain stem auditory-evoked potential wave V latency-intensity curve and rarefaction-condensation differential potentials.

Objective: To evaluate auditory maturation in puppies.

Animals: Ten clinically normal Beagle puppies.

Procedure: Puppies were examined repeatedly from days 11 to 36 after birth (8 measurements).

Maternal height and external pelvimetry to predict cephalopelvic disproportion in nulliparous African women: a cohort study.

Objective: To assess external pelvimetry and maternal height, as predictors of cephalopelvic disproportion.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Four hospitals in Zaire.

Association between external pelvimetry and vertex delivery complications in African women.

Objective: To assess association between external pelvimetry and delivery complications in vertex presentation.

Methods: Prospective cohort study of 2,413 pregnant women antenatally measured for height and external pelvimetry in four hospitals of the former Republic of Zaire.

Outcome Measures: Complications during delivery of single fetus weighing 2,000 g or more in vertex presentation.