Hypospadias, a congenital malformation of the penis characteristic of an abnormal urethral orifice, affects 1 in every 125 boys, and its incidence is rising. Herein we test the hypothesis that the basement membrane protein laminin α5 (LAMA5) plays a key role in the development of the mouse genital tubercle, the embryonic anlage of the external genitalia. Using standard histological analyses and...

Anorectal malformations are congenital anomalies that form a spectrum of disorders, from the most benign type with excellent functional prognosis, to very complex, such as cloaca malformation in females in which the rectum, vagina and urethra fail to develop separately and instead drain via a single common channel into the perineum. The severity of this phenotype suggests that the defect occurs...

Cloacae were examined from salamanders representing the three families in which fertilization of eggs is known or inferred to occur externally. The cloacae of male and female sirenids are aglandular and lack cilia. Sexual dimorphism in sirenid cloacae occurs only in the extent of epithelial stratification in the cloacal chamber in females (entire chamber) versus males (posterior angle of the ve...

BACKGROUND Early studies in dabbling ducks showed that cloacal swabs yielded a larger number of avian influenza virus (AIV) isolates than did respiratory tract swabs. Historically, AIV surveillance has been performed by collecting cloacal or environmental fecal samples only. Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus emerged in 1996 and replicated to higher titers in the respiratory rather th...

The cloacal gland is a paired exocrine structure, which has so far been described only in the formicine species, Camponotus ephippium and Cataglyphis savignyi (Hymenoptera : Formicidae). The gland is formed by 2 clusters of bicellular units with slender duct cells, releasing the glandular secretion through the cloacal membrane. In the present work, a number of ant species, largely of the Formic...

In birds, microparasites found in both the reproductive and the digestive tracts may be transmitted through copulations via cloacal contact (male-to-female and vice versa) and/or through the seminal fluid (mainly male-to-female). Most importantly, such cloacal microparasites are affected by and may in turn affect sexual selection processes and the evolution of mating systems. Here I provide pre...

Background: Women with repaired bladder/cloacal exstrophy face unique challenges throughout their pregnancy. Limited obstetric care information available in the current literature. Aims: To review perinatal issues, pregnancy outcomes and surgical techniques for five pregnancies in three women with repaired bladder exstrophy and cloacal exstrophy. Materials and Method Design: A case series and r...

Cloacae were examined from male and female salamanders representing 12 genera and 22 species in the Salamandridae. All female salamandrids possess numerous sperm storage glands, spermathecae, in the roof of the cloaca, but intergeneric variation exists in the occurrence of additional cloacal glands. Pleurodeles and Tylototriton possess both vent and anterior ventral glands, and secondary loss h...