1Institute of Community and Public Health, Birzeit University, Birzeit, Palestine (Correspondence to Abdullatif Husseini: [email protected]). 2Department of Biology, Al-Quds University, Jersusalem. ABSTRACT An audit was made of laboratory records of triple test results from 943 Palestinian women residing in the West Bank from 2000–03. The mean expected age at delivery of the subjects was 2...

Objective: To investigate clinical experience with the apparent malignant transformation of benign liver cell adenomas. Design: Retrospective review of personal experience and literature. Setting: University hospital and affiliated community hospitals. Patients: All patients diagnosed with liver cell adenomas over a 30-year period. Interventions: Liver resection and/or tumor biopsy. Main Outcom...

A highly sensitive sandwich-type electrochemiluminescence (ECL) immunosensor was proposed for the quantitative determination of alpha fetoprotein (AFP) using gold nanoparticles decorated black carbon intercalated reduced graphene oxide (Au-rGO@CB) as sensing platform and nanoporous silver (NPS) loaded Ru(bpy)3(2+) as labels. In this work, intercalation of CB inhibited the accumulation of rGO an...

To approach the genetic mechanism that turns off the synthesis of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) after birth, we assumed that a change in this mechanism might affect the low basal level of AFP that can be detected in the adult organism. The concentration of AFP was therefore determined for serum from adult mice of 27 different inbred strains. With one exception, this basal level was between 34 and 173...

Rapidly adhering cells (RA cells) from the amniotic fluid of a pregnancy with fetal anencephaly were investigated by immunofluorescence assay with an antiserum against glial cells. After 24 hours' cultivation a high proportion of the cells showed positive glial-specific fluorescence, whereas no staining was seen in cells from samples of normal amniotic fluid. At the 24th week the mother was del...

We conducted the present study in an attempt to correlate function with the rate of molecular evolution for serum albumin and alpha-fetoprotein. We found a high rate of silent substitution (between 5 X 10(-9) and 7 X 10(-9)/site/year) for both the albumin and alpha-fetoprotein genes, perhaps the highest so far reported for an expressed nuclear gene. The rates of effective substitution and amino...

Time-dependent expression of functional proteins in fetal ovaries is important to understand the developmental process of the ovary. This study was carried out to enhance our understanding of the developmental process of porcine fetal ovaries and to better address the differences in fetal ovary development of local and foreign pigs. The objective of the present study is to test the expression o...

Background: The maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein test (MSAFP) was developed to screen for neural tube defects. Little is known about the adoption of the MSAFP test. This study examines the effect of provider specialty and geographic location and patient insurance status on MSAFP test use in Washington State. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of MSAFP use in low-risk obstetric p...

A prospective program for the prenatal detection of neural tube defects in a high-risk pregnancy group has been under way for one year. Twenty high-risk mothers have undergone a complete prenatal work-up, including sonography, amniocentesis, and amniotic fluid and maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein quantitation. Within this group, two cases were prospectively diagnosed and were later confirmed.

A new chimeric gene ApE1 encoding the receptor-binding domain of the human alpha-fetoprotein fused to a sequence of 22 glutamic acid residues was constructed. A new bacterial producer strain E. coli SHExT7 ApE1 was selected for ApE1 production in a soluble state. A simplified method was developed to purify ApE1 from bacterial biomass. It was shown that the new vector protein selectively interac...