Association of glucocorticoid and type 1 corticotropin-releasing hormone receptors gene variants and risk for depression during pregnancy and post-partum.

Women with postnatal depression (PND) appear to have abnormal hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis responses to stress, which might involve a genetic variability component. We investigated association of genetic variants in the glucocorticoid receptor (GR, NR3C1) and corticotropin releasing hormone receptor 1 (CRHR1) genes with increased risk for PND. Two hundred pregnant women were recruited prospectively and PND risk was assessed by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) during pregnancy and again 2-8 weeks post-natally (CW-GAPND study).

Perinatal variables and neonatal outcomes in severely growth restricted preterm fetuses.

Objective: To investigate the impact of severe preterm intrauterine growth restriction on perinatal and neonatal outcomes.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Tertiary referral fetal medicine unit in London.

Influence of extracellular matrix on cytokine stimulated pro-labour gene expression in human uterine myocytes.

Cellular function is modulated by the interaction with the extracellular matrix within the myometrium. We formed the hypothesis that the cytokine-stimulated pro-labour gene expression by human uterine smooth muscle cells would be increased by growing the cells on collagen-coated plates. Primary cultures of human uterine smooth muscle cells grown on uncoated plates and on plates coated with collagen were exposed to the inflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-1beta and interleukin-6) and assessed the messenger RNA expression of oxytocin receptor, interleukin-8, prostaglandin H synthase type-2 and prostaglandin F(2) alpha receptor.

The effect of polyhydramnios on cervical length in twins: a controlled intervention study in complicated monochorionic pregnancies.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that cervical shortening in polyhydramnios reflects the degree of excess amniotic fluid, and increases with normalisation of amniotic fluid volume.

Study Design: Prospective cohort study of 40 women with monochorionic twins undergoing interventional procedures between 16-26 weeks. Cervical length was assessed via transvaginal sonography pre-procedure, 1 and 24 hours post-procedure, and results compared between amnioreduction and control procedures.

Pro-labour myometrial gene expression: are preterm labour and term labour the same?

Preterm labour (PTL) is the most important cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality. While some causes have been identified, the mechanisms involved remain elusive. This study investigates whether term labour (TL) is an appropriate model for PTL by examining pro-labour gene expression, using quantitative rtPCR, and protein synthesis, using Western analysis, in preterm and term myometrial samples obtained from the upper and lower uterine segments before and after the onset of labour.

A case report of polysplenia syndrome associated with genital tract duplication anomaly.

Polysplenia syndrome is a condition that persists as a defect of lateralisation, the embryonic process by which the site of body organs is determined. The most frequent manifestations of this syndrome, in addition to polysplenia are complex cardiac malformations, situs inversus, and bilobed lungs. Laterality defects have been known to be due to autosomal recessive inheritance.