A Punishment on the Nation: An Iowa Soldier Endures the Civil War

Review of: "A Punishment on the Nation: An Iowa Soldier Endures the Civil War," edited by Brian Craig Miller, part of the "Civil War in the North" series

Across the Divide: Union Soldiers View the Northern Home Front

Review of: "Across the Divide: Union Soldiers View the Northern Home Front, by Steven J. Ramol

Surveillance and Spies in the Civil War: Exposing Confederate Conspiracies in America\u27s Heartland

Review of: Surveillance and Spies in the Civil War: Exposing Confederate Conspiracies in America’s Heartland, by Stephen E. Town

The Story of My Campaign: The Civil War Memoir of Captain Francis T. Moore, Second Illinois Cavalry

Remembering the Experience from the Ground Up In the vast literature concerning the American Civil War, there are hundreds of books to be found that are the memoirs of combatants on both sides. Hundreds more are comprised of letters and diaries composed during the conflict by those who...

Union Heartland: The Midwestern Home Front during the Civil War

Review of: "Union Heartland: The Midwestern Home Front during the Civil War" by Donald C. Elder III

Lincoln\u27s Mercenaries: Economic Motivation among Union Soldiers during the Civil War

Review of: Lincoln’s Mercenaries: Economic Motivation among Union Soldiers during the Civil War, by William Marve

A Civil War History of the New Mexico Volunteers and Militia

Answering the Call of Duty in the New Mexico Territory As part of its elaborate plan to win a decisive victory over US naval forces in June of 1942, the Japanese military captured the Aleutian Islands of Attu and Kiska. This move soon prompted the US military to respond with a campai...

The War for the Common Soldier: How Men Thought, Fought, and Survived in Civil War Armies

Review of: The War for the Common Soldier: How Men Thought, Fought, and Survived in Civil War Armies, by Peter S. Carmichael

"Behind Bayonets": The Civil War in Northern Ohio

Review of: "\u27Behind Bayonets\u27: The Civil War in Northern Ohio," by David D. Van Tassel, with John Vacha

Expression and localization of estrogen receptor-alpha protein in normal and abnormal term placentae and stimulation of trophoblast differentiation by estradiol

Estrogens play an important role in the regulation of placental function, and 17-beta-estradiol (E2) production rises eighty fold during human pregnancy. Although term placenta has been found to specifically bind estrogens, cellular localization of estrogen receptor alpha (ER-alpha) in trophoblast remains unclear. We used western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry with h-151 and ID5 monoclonal antibodies to determine the expression and cellular localization of ER-alpha protein in human placentae and cultured trophoblast cells. Western blot analysis revealed a ~65 kDa ER-alpha band in MCF-7 breast carcinoma cells (positive control). A similar band was detected in five normal term placentae exhibiting strong expression of Thy-1 differentiation protein in the villous core. However, five other term placentae, which exhibited low or no Thy-1 expression (abnormal placentae), exhibited virtually no ER-alpha expression. In normal placentae, nuclear ER-alpha expression was confined to villous cytotrophoblast cells (CT), but syncytiotrophoblast (ST) and extravillous trophoblast cells were unstained. In abnormal placentae no CT expressing ER-alpha were detected. Normal and abnormal placentae also showed ER-alpha expression in villous vascular pericytes and amniotic (but not villous) fibroblasts; no staining was detected in amniotic epithelial cells or decidual cells. All cultured trophoblast cells derived from the same normal and abnormal placentae showed distinct ER-alpha expression in western blots, and the ER-alpha expression was confined to the differentiating CT, but not to the mature ST. Trophoblast cells from six additional placentae were cultured in normal medium with phenol red (a weak estrogen) as above (PhR+), or plated in phenol red-free medium (PhR-) without or with mid-pregnancy levels of E2 (20 nM). Culture in PhR- medium without E2 caused retardation of syncytium formation and PhR-medium with E2 caused acceleration of syncytium formation compared to cultures in PhR+ medium. These data indicate that the considerable increase in estrogen production during pregnancy may play a role, via the ER-alpha, in the stimulation of CT differentiation and promote function in normal placentae. This mechanism, however, may not operate in abnormal placentae, which show a lack of ER-alpha expression