Growth restriction in gastroschisis: quantification of its severity and exploration of a placental cause.

Background: Gastroschisis patients are commonly small for gestational age (SGA, birth weight [BW] < 10th centile). However, the extent, symmetry and causes of that growth restriction remain controversial.

Methods: We compared BW, crown-heel length (LT), occipitofrontal circumference (OFC) and ponderal index (PI) in 179 gastroschisis cases and 895 matched controls by univariate and multiple regression.

Engineering of N. benthamiana L. plants for production of N-acetylgalactosamine-glycosylated proteins--towards development of a plant-based platform for production of protein therapeutics with mucin type O-glycosylation.

Background: Mucin type O-glycosylation is one of the most common types of post-translational modifications that impacts stability and biological functions of many mammalian proteins. A large family of UDP-GalNAc polypeptide:N-acetyl-α-galactosaminyltransferases (GalNAc-Ts) catalyzes the first step of mucin type O-glycosylation by transferring GalNAc to serine and/or threonine residues of acceptor polypeptides. Plants do not have the enzyme machinery to perform this process, thus restricting their use as bioreactors for production of recombinant therapeutic proteins.

NICU practices and outcomes associated with 9 years of quality improvement collaboratives.

Objective: Quality improvement collaboratives (QICs) can improve short-term outcomes, but few have examined their long-term results. This study evaluated the changes in treatment practices and outcomes associated with participation in multiple sequential QICs.

Design And Methods: This retrospective, 9-year, pre-post study of very low birth weight infants, we assessed treatment and outcomes from the 8 NICUs of the Reduce Lung Injury (ReLI) group of a QIC sponsored by the Vermont Oxford Network (VON).