The Dynamical Structure and Evolution of Giant Molecular Clouds

Giant molecular clouds (GMCs) are the sites of star formation in the Galaxy. Many of their properties can be understood in terms of a model in which the GMCs and the star-forming clumps within them are in approximate pressure equilibrium, with turbulent motions treated as a separate pressure component

Frequency of brain tissue donation for research after suicide

Objectives: To describe the frequency of brain tissue donation for research purposes by families of individuals that committed suicide. Methods: All requests for brain tissue donation to a brain biorepository made to the families of individuals aged 18-60 years who had committed suicide between March 2014 and February 2016 were included. Cases presenting with brain damage due to acute trauma were excluded. Results: Fifty-six cases of suicide were reported. Of these, 24 fulfilled the exclusion criteria, and 11 others were excluded because no next of kin was found to provide informed consent. Of the 21 remaining cases, brain tissue donation was authorized in nine (tissue fragments in seven and the entire organ in two). Conclusions: Donation of brain tissue from suicide cases for research purposes is feasible. The acceptance rate of 42.8% in our sample is in accordance with international data on such donations, and similar to rates reported for neurodegenerative diseases

Polymorphisms in maternal and fetal genes encoding for proteins involved in extracellular matrix metabolism alter the risk for small-for-gestational-age

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between maternal and fetal genetic variants and small-for-gestational-age (SGA). METHODS: A case-control study was conducted in patients with SGA neonates (530 maternal and 436 fetal) and controls (599 maternal and 628 fetal); 190 candidate genes and 775 SNPs were studied. Single locus, multilocus and haplotype association analyses were performed on maternal and fetal data with logistic regression, multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) analysis, and haplotype-based association with 2 and 3 marker sliding windows, respectively. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) software was used to assess pathways that associate with SGA. RESULTS: The most significant single locus association in maternal data was with a SNP in tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 2 (TIMP2) (rs2277698 OR = 1.71 95% CI [1.26-2.32], p = 0.0006) while in the fetus it was with a SNP in fibronectin 1 isoform 3 preproprotein (FN1) (rs3796123, OR = 1.46 95% CI [1.20-1.78], p = 0.0001). Both SNPs were adjusted for potential confounders (maternal body mass index and fetal sex). Haplotype analyses resulted in associations in alpha 1 type I collagen preproprotein (COL1A1, rs1007086-rs2141279-rs17639446, global p = 0.006) in mothers and FN1 (rs2304573-rs1250204-rs1250215, global p = 0.045) in fetuses. Multilocus analyses with MDR identified a two SNP model with maternal variants collagen type V alpha 2 (COL5A2) and plasminogen activator urokinase (PLAU) predicting SGA outcome correctly 59% of the time (p = 0.035). CONCLUSIONS: Genetic variants in extracellular matrix related genes showed significant single locus association with SGA. These data are consistent with other studies that have observed elevated circulating fibronectin concentrations in association with increased risk of SGA. The present study supports the hypothesis that DNA variants can partially explain risk of SGA in a cohort of Hispanic women