background: in fertility studies, it has been shown that transforming growth factor β (tgfβ) and interlukin 10 (il-10) play very important roles in implantation, maternal immune tolerance, placentation and fetal development, and the release beginning of release for fetal and postnatal death. the present study aims to determine the effects of the postmating administration of neutralizing antibod...

Preeclampsia may result from overactivation of the maternal immune system and is characterized by endothelial dysfunction and excessive inflammation. Given the importance of maternal immune system regulation and antiinflammatory cytokines in normotensive pregnancies, we hypothesized that maternal immune system activation via Toll-like receptor 3 during pregnancy would cause preeclampsia-like sy...

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous environmental contaminants generated during combustion. Dibenzo[def,p]chrysene (DBC) is a high molecular weight PAH classified as a 2B carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. DBC crosses the placenta in exposed mice, causing carcinogenicity in offspring. We present pharmacokinetic data of DBC in pregnant and nonpregna...

The primary IgM antibody response to sheep erythrocytes in vivo as well as in vitro is markedly decreased in the spleen cells of pregnant mice, compared to age-matched female controls. Decreased antibody synthesis appears to be mediated by nonspecific suppressor cells, because the addition of pregnant spleen cells to the normal spleen cell cultures causes a significant suppression of plaque-for...

To understand the molecular pathology of factor XIII (FXIII) deficiency in vivo, its A subunit (FXIIIA)-knockout (KO) mice were functionally analyzed. Although homozygous FXIIIA female KO mice were capable of becoming pregnant, most of them died due to excessive vaginal bleeding during gestation. Abdominal incisions revealed that the uteri of the dead mice were filled with blood and that some e...

Previous studies have shown that a diet high in polyunsaturated fatty acids increases mammary tumor incidence in adult and pregnant mice and rats and in the female offspring. The present study investigated whether a high-fat diet alters the number of estrogen receptor (ER) binding sites and protein kinase C (PKC) activity in the mammary gland of these animals. In the female offspring, the effec...