Adipocyte-specific protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B deletion increases lipogenesis, adipocyte cell size and is a minor regulator of glucose homeostasis

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Is paternal age associated with transfer day, developmental stage, morphology, and initial hCG-rise of the competent blastocyst leading to live birth?:A multicenter cohort study

In this study we investigated whether age of men undergoing assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment was associated with day of transfer, stage, morphology, and initial hCG-rise of the competent blastocyst leading to a live birth? The design was a multicenter historical cohort study based on exposure (age) and outcome data (blastocyst stage and morphology and initial hCG-rise) from men whose partner underwent single blastocyst transfer resulting in singleton pregnancy/birth. The ART treatments were carried out at sixteen private and university-based public fertility clinics. We included 7246 men and women, who between 2014 and 2018 underwent controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) or Frozen-thawed Embryo Transfer (FET) with a single blastocyst transfer resulting in singleton pregnancy were identified. 4842 men with a partner giving birth were included, by linking data to the Danish Medical Birth Registry. We showed that the adjusted association between paternal age and transfer day in COS treatments was OR 1.06, 95% CI (1.00;1.13). Meaning that for every increase of one year, men had a 6% increased probability that the competent blastocyst was transferred on day 6 compared to day 5. Further we showed that the mean difference in hCG values when comparing paternal age group 30–34, 35–39 and 40–45 with the age group 25–29 in those receiving COS treatment, all showed significantly lower adjusted values for older men. In conclusion we hypothesize that the later transfer (day 6) in female partners of older men may be due to longer time spent by the oocyte to repair fragmented DNA of the sperm cells, which should be a focus of future research in men

Autoantibodies to folate receptor alpha during early pregnancy and risk of oral clefts in Denmark

The objective of this study was to determine whether Immunoglobulin G (IgG) and M (IgM) autoantibodies to folate receptor α (FRα) in pregnant women are associated with an increased risk of oral cleft-affected offspring. A case-control study nested in the prospective Danish National Birth Cohort (100,418 pregnancies, enrolled during 1997–2003) was done. 185 children were born with an oral cleft. Maternal serum from their mothers (cases) was compared to maternal serum from 779 randomly selected mothers of non-malformed children (controls). We found that the average level of FRα IgG autoantibodies did not differ significantly among cases and controls (p=0.71). Slightly higher levels of FRα IgM autoantibodies were found among controls compared to cases. This was, however, not statistically significant (p=0.06), except for mothers of children with isolated cleft lip (p=0.04). Blocking of folate binding to folate receptor was similar among cases and controls (p=0.54). The results did not change when stratifying into the cleft subgroups, nor when only isolated oral cleft cases were considered. In conclusion, high maternal autoantibody levels and blocking of folate binding to folate receptor α in maternal serum during pregnancy are not associated with an increased risk of oral clefts in the offspring in this population based cohort

A locus on mouse chromosome 2 is involved in susceptibility to congenital hypothyroidism and contains an essential gene expressed in thyroid

We report here the mapping of a chromosomal region responsible for strain-specific development of congenital hypothyroidism in mice heterozygous for null mutations in genes encoding Nkx2-1/Titf1 and Pax8. The two strains showing a differential predisposition to congenital hypothyroidism contain several single-nucleotide polymorphisms in this locus, one of which leads to a nonsynonymous amino acid change in a highly conserved region of Dnajc17, a member of the type III heat-shock protein-40 (Hsp40) family. We demonstrate that Dnajc17 is highly expressed in the thyroid bud and had an essential function in development, suggesting an important role of this protein in organogenesis and/or function of the thyroid gland. Copyright \uc2\ua9 2010 by The Endocrine Society