Severe intra- and periventricular hemorrhage: role of arteriolosclerosis related to maternal smoke

The authors aimed to describe the atherosclerotic lesions of the cerebral arterioles, as a substrate of their rupture and bleeding for ests. The study was performed on brain of 9 caucasian fetal victims of intra- and periventricular hemorrhage, all grade IV, and 9 control cases. In the 9 victims of hemorrhage the arteriolar wall structure was altered, focally transformed into a deposit of amorphous eosinophilic material. Such changes often affected the full-thickness of the wall, causing rupture and hemorrhage. In 8 of these cases and in 2 victims of the control group the mothers were heavy cigarette smokers (15-20 cigarettes/day) before and during pregnancy. The authors conclude that intra- and periventricular haemorrhage can be ascribed to the toxic effects of prenatal absorption of nicotine

Italian national data bank of stillbirth vs. SIDS.

Sudden perinatal death, which includes antepartum death (from 22 completed weeks of gestation), intrapartum death and early neonatal death (occurring within seven completed days of life), and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), represents one of the major sociomedical and scientific problems still lacking a solution in today\u2019s medicine.1 However, little effort is being made to find a cause of these deaths, as there is no standard method of performing an autopsy in these victims, and no database exists from which researchers can draw autopsy results. Therefore, the need to submit the young victims to necropsy procedures through a standardized protocol is unanimously recognized, and the chance of preventing perinatal unexpected death and SIDS relies mainly on a better knowledge of the underlying alterations of organs and etiopathogenetic mechanisms. Similarly, for diagnostic purposes, an accurate and careful examination of the circumstantial, environmental, and familial situation within which the death occurred is extremely important. All the information related to victims of sudden and unexplained fetal death and SIDS will soon be made available in Italy through a specific data bank established under the Law 31/2006 \u201cRegulations for Diagnostic Post Mortem Investigation in Victims of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and Unexpected Fetal Death.\u201d2 This law mandates that infants who die suddenly within one year of life, and fetuses that die after 22 weeks of gestation without any apparent cause, must be rapidly submitted\u2014with the consent of both parents\u2014to diagnostic postmortem investigation.3 Information about the pregnancy, fetal development and delivery, and, in the case of SIDS, the environmental and familial situation in which the death occurred\u2014in addition to information related to risk factors\u2014must be collected by the obstetriciangynecologist, neonatologist, pediatrician, and pathologist involved in the case and recorded in the registry of the data bank. In addition, to facilitate the collection and analysis of the data, this data bank will allow the Lino Rossi Research Center in collaboration with the Epidemiology Center of the Italian National Health Institute to update the population through public education and prevention programs aimed at decreasing the incidence of stillbirth and SIDS

Feto-Placental Atherosclerotic Lesions in Intrauterine Fetal Demise: Role of Parental Cigarette Smoking

The atherogenic effect of cigarette smoking is already recognizable in coronary arteries of fetuses in the last gestational weeks. In this study we analyzed the atherogenic effect of mother’s and father’s smoking habit on coronary arteries and even on adnexa of 30 human fresh fetuses died from 32 to 41 gestational weeks. In 12 cases only the mothers of the victims were cigarette smokers, in 7 cases only the fathers were smokers, whereas in 11 cases nobody smoked

Mono- and Dinuclear Complexes of Tricarbonylrhenium(I) with 4-Methyl-2,2'-bipyridine-4'-carbonitrile

Novel mono- and dinuclear tricarbonylrhenium(I) complexes of formula [Re(Mebpy-CN)(CO)3Cl] (1), [Re(Mebpy-CN)-(CO)3(CH3CN)](PF6) (2), and [(CH3CN)(CO)3Re(Mebpy-CN)Ru(NH3)5](PF6)3 (3), in which Mebpy-CN = 4-methyl-2,2-bipyridine-4-carbonitrile, were prepared and characterized by spectroscopic, photophysical, and computational techniques. The complete structure of complex 2 was determined by X-ray diffraction. The increased conjugation in the bipyridyl ring owing to the nitrile substituent increases the emission quantum yields of the 3MLCT (metal-to-ligand charge-transfer) lowest-lying excited states of 1 and 2 with respect to the corresponding bpy complexes (bpy = 2,2-bipyridine). The mixed-valent species of formula [(CH3CN)(CO)3Re(Mebpy-CN)Ru(NH3)5]4+ (4) was prepared in situ and as a mixed salt; the charge recombination from its metal-to-metal charge-transfer(MMCT) excited state is predicted to lie in the Marcus inverted region. The electronic structures and optical properties of all the reported complexes calculated by DFT and TD-DFT methods agree reasonably well with experimental results.Fil: Mecchia Ortiz, Juan Hugo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán. Instituto de Quimica del Noroeste; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán; ArgentinaFil: Moran Vieyra, Faustino Eduardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Santiago del Estero; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero; ArgentinaFil: Borsarelli, Claudio Darío. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Santiago del Estero; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero; ArgentinaFil: Romero, Isabel. Universidad de Girona; EspañaFil: Fontrodona, Xavier. Universidad de Girona; EspañaFil: Parella, Teodor. Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona; EspañaFil: Lis de Katz, Noemí D.. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán. Instituto de Quimica del Noroeste; ArgentinaFil: Fagalde, Florencia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán. Instituto de Quimica del Noroeste; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán; ArgentinaFil: Katz, Néstor Eduardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán. Instituto de Quimica del Noroeste; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán; Argentin

Delayed diagnosis of coeliac disease increases cancer risk

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Functional Specialization of the Plant miR396 Regulatory Network through Distinct MicroRNA–Target Interactions

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are ∼21 nt small RNAs that regulate gene expression in animals and plants. They can be grouped into families comprising different genes encoding similar or identical mature miRNAs. Several miRNA families are deeply conserved in plant lineages and regulate key aspects of plant development, hormone signaling, and stress response. The ancient miRNA miR396 regulates conserved targets belonging to the GROWTH-REGULATING FACTOR (GRF) family of transcription factors, which are known to control cell proliferation in Arabidopsis leaves. In this work, we characterized the regulation of an additional target for miR396, the transcription factor bHLH74, that is necessary for Arabidopsis normal development. bHLH74 homologs with a miR396 target site could only be detected in the sister families Brassicaceae and Cleomaceae. Still, bHLH74 repression by miR396 is required for margin and vein pattern formation of Arabidopsis leaves. MiR396 contributes to the spatio-temporal regulation of GRF and bHLH74 expression during leaf development. Furthermore, a survey of miR396 sequences in different species showed variations in the 5′ portion of the miRNA, a region known to be important for miRNA activity. Analysis of different miR396 variants in Arabidopsis thaliana revealed that they have an enhanced activity toward GRF transcription factors. The interaction between the GRF target site and miR396 has a bulge between positions 7 and 8 of the miRNA. Our data indicate that such bulge modulates the strength of the miR396-mediated repression and that this modulation is essential to shape the precise spatio-temporal pattern of GRF2 expression. The results show that ancient miRNAs can regulate conserved targets with varied efficiency in different species, and we further propose that they could acquire new targets whose control might also be biologically relevant

Neuropathology of the area postrema in sudden intrauterine and infant death syndromes related to tobacco smoke exposure

The area postrema is a densely vascularized small protuberance at the inferoposterior limit of the fourth ventricle, outside of the blood-brain barrier. This structure, besides to induce emetic reflex in presence of noxious chemical stimulation, has a multifunctional integrative capacity to send major and minor efferents to a variety of brain centers particularly involved in autonomic control of the cardiovascular and respiratory activities. In this study we aimed to focus on the area postrema, is so far little studied in humans, in a large sample of subjects aged from 25 gestational weeks to 10 postnatal months, who died of unknown (sudden unexplained perinatal and infant deaths) and known causes (controls). Besides we investigated a possible link between alterations of this structure, sudden unexplained fetal and infant death and maternal smoking. By the application of morphological and immunohistochemical methods, we observed a significantly high incidence of alterations of the area postrema in fetal and infant victims of sudden death as compared with age-matched controls. These pathological findings, including hypoplasia, lack of vascularization, cystic formations and reactive gliosis, were related to maternal smoking. We hypothesize that components from maternal cigarette smoke, particularly in pregnancy, could affect neurons of the area postrema connected with specific nervous centers involved in the control of vital functions. In conclusion, we suggest that the area postrema should be in depth examined particularly in victims of sudden fetal or infant death with smoker mothers

Primary Cardiac Fibroma and Cardiac Conduction System Alterations in a Case of Sudden Death of a 4-month-old Infant

A 4-month-old female infant considered to be in good health died suddenly and unexpectedly. Post- mortem examination was requested, with clinical diagnosis of sudden infant death syndrome. At autopsy the infant was described in good health. Histo- logical examination of the heart found a cardiac fibroma compressing the atrio-ventricular node and the examination of the cardiac conduction system showed an accessory fiber of Mahaim (nodo-ventricular) and cartilaginous metaplasia of the cardiac fibrous body. Probably the concomitant presence of cardiac conduction system abnormalities and a septal fibroma, compressing the atrio-ventricular node, could have an important role in causing the sudden death

Developmental alterations of the prefrontal cerebral cortex in sudden unexplained perinatal and infant deaths.

The aim of this study was to investigate the developmental patterns of the human prefrontal cortex involved in breathing control in a wide cohort of fetal and infant death victims, aged from the 22(nd) gestational week to 10 months of life, and to evaluate whether morpho-functional disorders are present in this specific cortical area in victims of sudden unexplained death. A further aim was to determine whether prenatal absorption of nicotine could also affect the maturational processes of the prefrontal cortex. A pronounced radial organization of the cerebral wall was evident from the 26(th) gestational week. By 36 gestational weeks this columnar structure disappeared, coinciding with the formation of a laminar cyto-architecture. The mature cortex, observable from the 4(th) month of life, was organized horizontally into six laminae. In 33% of the sudden death victims the prefrontal cortex showed morphological alterations with anomalous laminar patterns and delayed neuronal maturation. A significant correlation with prenatal cigarette exposure was found