The chorionic villi of human term placentae are a rich source of mesenchymal stem cells (PMSCs). The stem cell "niche" within the chorionic villi regulates how PMSCs participate in placental tissue generation, maintenance and repair, but the anatomic location of the niche has not been defined. A number of cell surface markers for phenotypic characterisation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were...

Ovine chorionic somatomammotropin (oCS) enhances the weight and bone growth of hypophysectomized rats. It acts as a bifunctional hormone, since it binds both to lactogenic and somatotropic receptors. Ovine foetus weight gain is closely related to oCS and oGH serum levels. oCS is able to stimulate somatomedins by foetal liver. Moreover, oCS specific receptors are present in some foetal tissues. ...

Use of Quadrature Bandpass Sampling (QBPS) in GNSS receivers gives several advantages over quadrature-sampled superheterodyne architectures. The sampling process has the important secondary function of providing frequency down-conversion (exploiting aliasing) that avoids the use of frontend RF mixers and oscillators. However, the process is not perfect and does incur some losses. This paper exa...

OBJECTIVE Analyze indications and type of prenatal diagnostic procedures performed. METHOD This retrospective audit was conducted at a dedicated fetal medicine center in Petaling Jaya. All invasive prenatal diagnosis procedures performed from 2003 up until 2010 (amniocentesis, chorionic villous sampling and fetal blood sampling) were analyzed. RESULT A total of 1560 invasive prenatal diagno...

INTRODUCTION As part of the global strategic plan to reduce the number of measles deaths in India, the state of Tamilnadu aims at > or =95% measles vaccination coverage. A study was conducted to measure overall coverage levels for the Poondi Primary Health Center (PPHC), a rural health-care facility in Tiruvallur District, and to determine whether any of the PPHC's six health subcenters had cov...

Accurate lumpectomy cavity definition is critical in breast treatment planning. We compared contouring lumpectomy cavity volume and cavity visualization score (CVS) with CT versus 3T MRI. 29 patients were imaged with CT and 3T MRI. Seven additional boost planning sets were obtained for 36 image sets total. Three observers contoured the lumpectomy cavity on all images, assigning a cavity visuali...

OBJECTIVE This study investigated interobserver and intraobserver variability in radiation oncologists' definition of the tumor bed (TB) after breast-conserving surgery (BCS). RESULTS The TB volume, CVS and number of surgical clips were not significantly related to intraobserver variability. Moreover, no correlation was noted between CT slice thickness and interobserver variability (Δinter, D...

A = 5'GCGATCTGGGCTCTGTGTTCT-3' complications, such as hydramnios, preeclampsia, antepartum or postpartum hemorrhage, and difficult vaginal delivery? There is also considerable emotional strain for the mothers and their family members. We use polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and prenatal diagnosis from chorionic villi biopsy samples to identify couples at risk of conceiving fetuses afflicted with...

We appreciate the comments by Tartaglia et al. (1) in response to our study.We agree with Tartaglia et al. that maternal glucose management in glucokinase (GCK) pregnancy should be guided by knowledge of whether the fetus has inherited the mutation from the mother. In our article (2), we propose that fetal genetic testing should be performed if chorionic villus sampling (CVS) or amniocentesis i...