The study was conducted to report on the use of molecular biology methods and pregnancy outcome in women sensitized to either Rhesus D (RhD) or Kell 1 (K1) antigens. Paternal RhD genotype was determined by DNA amplification of an RhD-specific sequence from single sperm cells. Paternal Kell phenotype was determined by serologic assays using peripheral blood samples, and the fetal RhD or Kell-typ...

The fetal overnutrition hypothesis proposes that greater maternal adiposity results in increased obesity throughout life in the offspring. The authors examined the associations between parental prepregnancy body mass index (BMI; weight (kg)/height (m)(2)), based on height and weight reported by the mother at her first antenatal clinic visit, and offspring BMI (height and weight measured at age ...

Significant spontaneous fetal loss of unknown cause occurs in North American commercial swine. About 30% of conceptuses, thought to be genetically normal, are lost during the peri-attachment period. An additional 20% are lost at mid-pregnancy. Littermate endometrial and trophoblast biopsies were studied by quantitative real-time PCR for gene expression, and immunohistochemistry for protein expr...

Trophoblastic neoplasms are a truly fascinating set of diseases that arise from a failed gestation. A molar pregnancy is an allograft of fetal tissue typically containing only paternal chromosomes that may invade the maternal decidua following a failed gestation that may have arisen up to decades earlier. Choriocarcinoma (CCA), the most common malignant form of trophoblastic disease, represente...

How difficult is to go from egg to implanted embryo? The evolution of placentation in eutherian mammals created enormous challenges, in particular to the maternal immune system, as the fetus expresses paternal antigens that are capable of triggering immune rejection. Samstein et al. reveal a role for inducible regulatory T cells in the enforcement of maternal-fetal immune tolerance.

The fundamental assumption of Mendelian genetics is that behavior of an allele is identical whether it arrives to a zygote through paternal or maternal germline pathway. Gametic imprinting phenomena discovered and studied in mammals show limitations of the classical view in special cases. Two sources of evidence were essential to describe gametic imprinting. The first approach based on genetic ...