Five foeto-placental function tests were studied in parallel in normal and abnormal late pregnancies with a view to establishing which test or tests is most satisfactorily able to identify the mother whose foetus is in danger.A critical examination of the levels in blood serum of two enzymes, placental phosphatase isoenzyme and cystine aminopeptidase, the polypeptide hormone placental lactogen ...

Normal fetal growth and development depend on a continuous supply of amino acids from the mother to the fetus. The placenta is responsible for the transfer of amino acids between the two circulations. The human placenta is hemomonochorial, meaning that the maternal and fetal circulations are separated by a single layer of polarized epithelium called the syncytiotrophoblast, which is in direct c...

Maternal metabolic diseases increase offspring risk for low birth weight and cardiometabolic diseases in adulthood. Excess fructose consumption may confer metabolic risks for both women and their offspring. However, the direct consequences of fructose intake per se are unknown. We assessed the impact of a maternal high-fructose diet on the fetal-placental unit in mice in the absence of metaboli...

The term human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) refers to a group of 5 molecules, each sharing the common amino acid sequence but each differing in meric structure and carbohydrate side chain structure. The 5 molecules are each produced by separate cells and each having separate biological functions. hCG and sulfated hCG are hormones produced by placental syncytiotrophoblast cells and pituitary gon...

An eight-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of soy isoflavone and saponin on growth performance, intestinal structure, immunity gut microbiota community rice field eel Monopterus albus (initial weight 20.12 ± 0.15 g). Six isonitrogenous isolipidic experimental feeds were formulated, including a positive control (55% fish meal, FM), negative (28.6% 37.2% soybean SBM) basic ...

Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) in human choriocarcinoma cells (malignant trophoblasts) was characterized by its greater sensitivity to EDTA and L-leucine inhibition as compared with the placental isozyme. In addition, both the fully processed and the nonglycosylated forms of choriocarcinoma ALP migrated faster than the corresponding placental enzyme in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel elec...

Fetal growth depends on placental transfer of amino acids from maternal to fetal blood. The mechanisms of net amino acid efflux across the basal membrane (BM) of the placental syncytiotrophoblast to the fetus, although vital for amino acid transport, are poorly understood. We examined the hypothesis that facilitated diffusion by the amino acid transporters TAT1, LAT3 and LAT4 plays an important...

Background: Testicular Carcinoma in situ (CIS), also known as intratubular germ cell neoplasia (ITGCN), is a pre-invasive precursor of testicular germ cell tumours (TCGTs), i.e seminomas and non-seminomas -the commonest cancer type of male adolescents and young adults- which can be diagnosed using a surgical biopsy. Infertility is one of the condition known to predispose to TGCT, but based on s...

Abnormal fetal growth, which is associated with both perinatal morbidity as well as metabolic diseases in adulthood, is an important clinical problem affecting as many as 15% of all pregnancies. However, to this date, there is no specific treatment of this condition. Fetal growth is intimately linked to the nutrient transport functions of the placenta and placental amino acid transporter activi...

An endogenous protein which inhibits protein kinase C (PKC)-mediated effects has been detected in rat heart ventricular tissue. This functional PKC-inhibitory activity was completely abolished by okadaic acid, making it possible to measure PKC activity in non-purified cell fractions. This suggests that the PKC-inhibitory activity is a type 1 or 2A serine/threonine phosphatase. Confirming this, ...