A number of human pathologies have a transmission pattern that does not obey Mendelian segregation rules. This type of heredity is defined as non-Mendelian and is based on mechanisms of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. Comprehensive information on the molecular mechanisms of it is still lacking. However, recent evidence from distantly related species including Caenorhabditis elegans, D...

Oxidative stress (OS)-induced senescence of the amniochorion has been associated with parturition at term. We investigated whether telomere fragments shed into the amniotic fluid (AF) correlated with labor status and tested if exogenous telomere fragments (T-oligos) could induce human and murine amnion cell senescence. In a cross-sectional clinical study, AF telomere fragment concentrations qua...

Fig. 4 Logarithmic normalized signal attenuation with changes in perfusate flow. Free Wall-1 (left panel) is parallel to the diffusion encoded direction. On the other hand, Free Wall-2 (middle panel) and Papillary Muscle (right panel) are oriented orthogonal to the diffusion encoding direction. Fig. 1 Experimental setup for heavy DWI of isolated heart in the11T magnet, with the aorta cannulated...

Malnutrition continues to be one of the world’s most serious development problems. Exacerbating the consequences of infectious disease, malnutrition contributes to about 6 million deaths annually of children under 5. While lowand middle-income countries (LMICs) bear the brunt of the problem, malnutrition affects both rich and poor countries, particularly the poorest in each nation. In developed...

Emerging research has highlighted the importance of leptin in fetal growth and development independent of its essential role in the maintenance of hunger and satiety through the modulation of neuropeptide Y and proopiomelanocortin neurons. Alterations in maternal-placental-fetal leptin exchange may modify the development of the fetus and contribute to the increased risk of developing disease in...

Sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P), an abundant lipid mediator in plasma, regulates vascular and immune cells by activating S1P receptors. In this report, we investigated the mechanisms by which high plasma S1P levels are maintained in mice. We found that plasma S1P turns over rapidly with a half-life of approximately 15 minutes, suggesting the existence of a high-capacity biosynthetic source(s). Tr...

Hypertension is a major public health problem associated with the increased risk for heart disease and stroke, leading causes of death worldwide. Despite recent treatment advances, hypertension remains present in approximately one-third of adults in the U.S. (1). The majority of hypertensive subjects are now obese and many suffer from insulin resistance, which exacerbates the risk for cardiovas...