background: the present study has been carried out to investigate the effects of preovulatory stage gamma-irradiation of female mice in the absence or presence of vitamin e on numerical chromosome abnormalities in 8-cell embryos after mating with non-irradiated males. materials and methods: the 8-11 weeks adult female nmri mice were whole body irradiated at preovulatory stage (post pmsg injecti...

X chromosome inactivation (XCI) is the mammalian mechanism that compensates for the difference in gene dosage between XX females and XY males. Genetic and epigenetic regulatory mechanisms induce transcriptional silencing of one X chromosome in female cells. In mouse embryos, XCI is initiated at the preimplantation stage following early whole-genome activation. It is widely thought that human em...

With readily available transcriptome-wide data, understanding the role of each expressed gene is an essential next step. Although RNAi technologies allow for genome-wide screens in cell culture, these approaches cannot replace strategies for discovery in the embryo. Here we present, for the first time, a knockdown screen in mouse preimplantation embryos. Early mammalian development encompasses ...

Screening of human preimplantation embryos for numerical chromosome abnormalities has been conducted mostly at the preimplantation stage using fluorescence in situ hybridization. However, it is clear that preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) as it is currently practiced does not improve live birth rates. Therefore the ESHRE PGS Task Force has decided to start a proof of principle study with ...

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This study examined the outcomes of a competing activities intervention to decrease skin picking exhibited by a 9-year-old student with comorbid diagnoses. Results of an ABCBAB design revealed that the use of student-selected manipulatives resulted in reduced skin picking.

Michelle Taylor-Sands rejects the argument ‘commonly used to justify selective reproduction, that it is better to be born than not’. The supposed inadequacy of this position is one of the things that pushes her towards an alternative ‘relational’ approach. Here, I consider briefly her three main objections: 1. The Non-Identity Problem does not apply to all the risks associated with the preimpla...

Our studies show that retrogenes are preferentially expressed in preimplantation embryos. These genes carry a short noncoding exon 1 that contributes directly to expression of the gene, and a second exon that contains the coding sequence without intron interruption. We show that preimplantation gene expression is first regulated by developmentally regulated transcription factors that target exo...

Preimplantation embryo development follows a series of critical events. Remarkable epigenetic modifications and reprogramming of gene expression occur to activate the embryonic genome. In the early stages of preimplantation embryo development, maternal mRNAs direct embryonic development. Throughout early embryonic development, a differential methylation pattern is maintained although some show ...