ECAT1 is a subunit of the subcortical maternal complex that is required for cell cycle progression during pre-implantation embryonic development; however, its exact function remains to be elucidated. Here we investigated the expression of ECAT1 in human ovarian tissue, oocytes and pre-implantation embryos and assessed its function by using RNA interference (RNAi) in oocytes. ECAT1 mRNA was high...

OBJECTIVES Hydatidiform mole is an aberrant pregnancy with hyperproliferative vesicular trophoblast and defective fetal development. In 2006, mutations in NLRP7 were found to be responsible for recurrent hydatidiform moles (RHM), but genetic heterogeneity has been demonstrated and mutations of C6orf221 were later reported in several families. Here we report a new Egyptian family in which two si...

Hydatidiform moles (HMs) most often occur sporadically and are either diploid androgenetic or triploid. The very rare familial recurrent HMs (FRHMs) have been related to NLRP7 and C6orf221 mutations in the mother. FRHMs are most often diploid with both maternal and paternal origin of the molar genome. We have screened a cohort of 11 women with diploid HMs with biparental contributions to the mo...

.......................................................................................................................... 5 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 6 The Discovery of the Stem Cell .............................................................................................. 6 Debating Emb...

Hydatidiform mole is an abnormal human pregnancy characterized by the fetus being absent or nonviable, and the chorionic villi being vesicular and with trophoblastic hyperplasia. Most often, the mole phenotype is seen in conceptuses with an excess of paternally inherited genome set(s) relative to maternally inherited genome set(s), suggesting that the phenotype is caused by an excess of genome ...