The present study was conducted to elucidate the susceptibility of embryos and fetuses at different gestational stages to the maternal stress in mice. Groups of pregnant ICR mice were subjected to daily 12-h restraint stress, taped in the supine position on a plastic board, on gestational days (GD) 1-4, 5-8, 9-12 and 13-16, respectively. Caesarean sections were performed on gestational day 18, ...

Maternal diabetes (types 1 and 2) induces a broad array of congenital malformations, including neural tube defects (NTDs), in humans. One of the difficulties associated with studying diabetic embryopathy is the rarity of individual malformations. In an attempt to develop a sensitive animal model for maternal diabetes-induced NTDs, the present study uses chemically induced diabetes in an inbred ...

Mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells in culture can differentiate into late stages of many lineage-committed precursor cells. Under appropriate organ-culture conditions, ES cells differentiate into lymphoidlike cells at a stage equivalent to lymphoid cells found in fetal liver. These hematopoietic precursors are located in cup-shaped structures found in some embryoid bodies; we called such embryoid ...

Mammalian TBP consists of a 180 amino acid core that is common to all eukaryotes, fused to a vertebrate-specific N-terminal domain. We generated mice having a modified tbp allele, tbp(DeltaN), that produces a version of TBP lacking 111 of the 135 vertebrate-specific amino acids. Most tbp(DeltaN/DeltaN) fetuses (>90%) died in midgestation from an apparent defect in the placenta. tbp(DeltaN/Delta...

Jcl:ICR pregnant mice were immobilized for 120 minutes from days 8-12 of gestation, and their fetuses were examined for skeletal features on day 18 of gestation. In the stressed group, decreased maternal bodyweight gain and lower fetal weight were noted. In this group, the incidences of segmentation defects, fused ribs, absent lumbar vertebrae and full supernumerary ribs were increased in fetus...

Mice lacking both c-Jun-NH(2)-terminal kinases (JNK1 and JNK2) were generated to define their roles in development. Jnk1/jnk2 double mutant fetuses die around embryonic day 11 (E11) and were found to display an open neural tube (exencephaly) at the hindbrain level with reduced apoptosis in the hindbrain neuroepithelium at E9.25. In contrast, a dramatic increase in cell death was observed one da...

Zika virus (ZIKV) infection in pregnant women causes intrauterine growth restriction, spontaneous abortion, and microcephaly. Here, we describe two mouse models of placental and fetal disease associated with in utero transmission of ZIKV. Female mice lacking type I interferon signaling (Ifnar1(-/-)) crossed to wild-type (WT) males produced heterozygous fetuses resembling the immune status of hu...

Epithelia from the lobular part of submandibular salivary gland, glandular stomach, intestine and colon of 14-day C3H/HeN fetuses, and from pituitary gland and pancreas of 12-day fetuses were recombined with 14-day mammary fat pad precursor tissue and syngrafted under the kidney capsule. The normal organogenetic development typical of the epithelium occurred. The same epithelia taken from earli...

Plasma samples from human cord blood, and fetuses, newborns, and adults of different mammalians species were analyzed by gel-filtration chromatography, to ascertain whether gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) fractions reflect liver maturation. Human cord blood plasma showed higher b-, m-, and s-GGT fraction as compared to adult women. In rat and mouse fetuses and in newborns, b-GGT was the most ab...