Unmet need for family planning, contraceptive failure, and unintended pregnancy among HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected women in Zimbabwe.

BackgroundPrevention of unintended pregnancies among women living with HIV infection is a strategy recommended by the World Health Organization for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT). We assessed pregnancy intentions and contraceptive use among HIV-positive and HIV-negative women with a recent pregnancy in Zimbabwe.MethodsWe analyzed baseline data from the evaluation of Zimbabwe's Accelerated National PMTCT Program. Eligible women were randomly sampled from the catchment areas of 157 health facilities offering PMTCT services in five provinces. Eligible women were ≥16 years old and mothers of infants (alive or deceased) born 9 to 18 months prior to the interview. Participants were interviewed about their HIV status, intendedness of the birth, and contraceptive use.ResultsOf 8,797 women, the mean age was 26.7 years, 92.8% were married or had a regular sexual partner, and they had an average of 2.7 lifetime births. Overall, 3,090 (35.1%) reported that their births were unintended; of these women, 1,477 (47.8%) and 1,613 (52.2%) were and were not using a contraceptive method prior to learning that they were pregnant, respectively. Twelve percent of women reported that they were HIV-positive at the time of the survey; women who reported that they were HIV-infected were significantly more likely to report that their pregnancy was unintended compared to women who reported that they were HIV-uninfected (44.9% vs. 33.8%, p<0.01). After adjustment for covariates, among women with unintended births, there was no association between self-reported HIV status and lack of contraception use prior to pregnancy.ConclusionsUnmet need for family planning and contraceptive failure contribute to unintended pregnancies among women in Zimbabwe. Both HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected women reported unintended pregnancies despite intending to avoid or delay pregnancy, highlighting the need for effective contraceptive methods that align with pregnancy intentions

Placental phenotype and the insulin-like growth factors: resource allocation to fetal growth

The placenta is the main determinant of fetal growth and development in utero. It supplies all the nutrients and oxygen required for fetal growth and secretes hormones that facilitate maternal allocation of nutrients to the fetus. Furthermore, the placenta responds to nutritional and metabolic signals in the mother by altering its structural and functional phenotype which can lead to changes in maternal resource allocation to the fetus. The molecular mechanisms by which the placenta senses and responds to environmental cues are poorly understood. This review discusses the role of the insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) in controlling placental resource allocation to fetal growth, particularly in response to adverse gestational environments. In particular, it assesses the impact of the IGFs and their signalling machinery on placental morphogenesis, substrate transport and hormone secretion, primarily in the laboratory species, although it draws on data from human and other species where relevant. It also considers the role of the IGFs as environmental signals in linking resource availability, to fetal growth through changes in the morphological and functional phenotype of the placenta. As altered fetal growth is associated with increased perinatal morbidity and mortality and a greater risk of developing adult-onset diseases in later life, understanding the role of IGFs during pregnancy in regulating placental resource allocation to fetal growth is important for identifying the mechanisms underlying the developmental programming of offspring phenotype by suboptimal intrauterine growth.ANS-P is funded by a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellowship

Differential genomic imprinting regulates paracrine and autocrine roles of IGF2 in mouse adult neurogenesis.

Genomic imprinting is implicated in the control of gene dosage in neurogenic niches. Here we address the importance of Igf2 imprinting for murine adult neurogenesis in the subventricular zone (SVZ) and in the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the hippocampus in vivo. In the SVZ, paracrine IGF2 is a cerebrospinal fluid and endothelial-derived neurogenic factor requiring biallelic expression, with mutants having reduced activation of the stem cell pool and impaired olfactory bulb neurogenesis. In contrast, Igf2 is imprinted in the hippocampus acting as an autocrine factor expressed in neural stem cells (NSCs) solely from the paternal allele. Conditional mutagenesis of Igf2 in blood vessels confirms that endothelial-derived IGF2 contributes to NSC maintenance in SVZ but not in the SGZ, and that this is regulated by the biallelic expression of IGF2 in the vascular compartment. Our findings indicate that a regulatory decision to imprint or not is a functionally important mechanism of transcriptional dosage control in adult neurogenesis.This work was supported by grants from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (SAF2012-40107), Generalitat Valenciana (Programa ACOMP2014-258) and Fundación BBVA to SRF and grants from the MRC, Wellcome Trust and EU FP7 Ingenium Training Network to AFS. AW and TRM were supported by the Association for International Cancer Research and Medical Research Council, UK.SRF was a recipient of a Herchel-Smith fellowship and currently is a Ramón y Cajal investigator. ADM is funded by a Spanish FPU fellowship program of the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. AR was from the Erasmus Placement Program.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms926

Estudios zoobentónicos recientes en el Río de la Plata

The present study shows the most important results in the sampling carried out in the Río de la Plata river from the year 1993. The main components of the zoobenthos in the studied area were the oligochaetes and nematods, particularly in sectors with high organic matter content and low dissolved oxygen. Tubificidae was very frequent, mainly Limnodrilus claparedeianus. A prevalence of Corbicula fluminea among the mollusks was observed in the coastal area in association with Limnoperma fortunei. This assemblage supports the presence of macroinvertebrates as Hirudinea, Temnocephala, Lumbriculidae, etc. Chironomidae showed an almost constant presence in the internal and intermediate areas of the river. The most frequent microcrustaceous were Copepoda, Cladocera, Ostracoda and their larval forms. In the offshore of the river the mollusks, annelids, crustaceans and nematods were present in the great majority of the sampling sites. Polychaeta were present in 90% of the sampling places being Nephtidae the most abundant genus. Corbicula fluminea dominated in the interior sector of the river and it was replaced by Erodona mactroides and Mactra isabelleana in the external area. Rapana venosa was also observed in this area. Different benthic assemblages were determined and their faunistic composition varied in function of the substrate, silt, size, coast, proximity, organic matter content and food resources.Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) - Instituto de Limnología "Dr. Raul A. Ringuelet" (ILPLA

Estudios zoobentónicos recientes en el Río de la Plata

The present study shows the most important results in the sampling carried out in the Río de la Plata river from the year 1993. The main components of the zoobenthos in the studied area were the oligochaetes and nematods, particularly in sectors with high organic matter content and low dissolved oxygen. Tubificidae was very frequent, mainly Limnodrilus claparedeianus. A prevalence of Corbicula fluminea among the mollusks was observed in the coastal area in association with Limnoperma fortunei. This assemblage supports the presence of macroinvertebrates as Hirudinea, Temnocephala, Lumbriculidae, etc. Chironomidae showed an almost constant presence in the internal and intermediate areas of the river. The most frequent microcrustaceous were Copepoda, Cladocera, Ostracoda and their larval forms. In the offshore of the river the mollusks, annelids, crustaceans and nematods were present in the great majority of the sampling sites. Polychaeta were present in 90% of the sampling places being Nephtidae the most abundant genus. Corbicula fluminea dominated in the interior sector of the river and it was replaced by Erodona mactroides and Mactra isabelleana in the external area. Rapana venosa was also observed in this area. Different benthic assemblages were determined and their faunistic composition varied in function of the substrate, silt, size, coast, proximity, organic matter content and food resources.Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) - Instituto de Limnología "Dr. Raul A. Ringuelet" (ILPLA

Estudios zoobentónicos recientes en el Río de la Plata

The present study shows the most important results in the sampling carried out in the Río de la Plata river from the year 1993. The main components of the zoobenthos in the studied area were the oligochaetes and nematods, particularly in sectors with high organic matter content and low dissolved oxygen. Tubificidae was very frequent, mainly Limnodrilus claparedeianus. A prevalence of Corbicula fluminea among the mollusks was observed in the coastal area in association with Limnoperma fortunei. This assemblage supports the presence of macroinvertebrates as Hirudinea, Temnocephala, Lumbriculidae, etc. Chironomidae showed an almost constant presence in the internal and intermediate areas of the river. The most frequent microcrustaceous were Copepoda, Cladocera, Ostracoda and their larval forms. In the offshore of the river the mollusks, annelids, crustaceans and nematods were present in the great majority of the sampling sites. Polychaeta were present in 90% of the sampling places being Nephtidae the most abundant genus. Corbicula fluminea dominated in the interior sector of the river and it was replaced by Erodona mactroides and Mactra isabelleana in the external area. Rapana venosa was also observed in this area. Different benthic assemblages were determined and their faunistic composition varied in function of the substrate, silt, size, coast, proximity, organic matter content and food resources

Exposure and fetal growth-associated miRNA alterations in the human placenta

Researchers have begun to examine epigenetic alterations in the placenta, making key advances in understanding the epigenetic regulatory mechanisms of the placenta that define underlying processes of human development and disease. Examining changes in microRNA (miRNA) expression associated with environmental exposures and fetal growth is providing critical insights into the biology of development, response to in utero exposure, and future disease risk assessment. This review aims to highlight previous studies describing changes in miRNA expression in the human placenta associated with in utero exposure and fetal growth and seeks to assess the future directions in this exciting field of research

Diversity of benthic invertebrates of the Río de la Plata river

The Rio de la Plata river present along the south coastal fringe different invertebrate assemblages related with substrate type, size sediment grains and organic matter content into the bedsediments. Other important factors influencing the distribution of benthos community in this river are the salinity and suspended solids of the water and the proximity to the riverside which increases the diversity of the habitats. The purpose of this study is to describe the taxonomic composition and ecological characteristics of the meso and macrobenthos associated with the river bed from Delta del Paraná to Magdalena, in Buenos Aires province. The listed taxa are the result of the revised literature and original data obtained from periodical samplings since 1993 till 1998. The principal components of the zoobenthos in the studied area were the allochthonous molluscs Corbicula fluminea on sandy and muddy bottoms and Limnoperna fortunei on hard substrates of the riverside. The nematods and oligochaetes dominated sediments with high allochthonous organic matter content imported from urban effluents. Palaemonetes argentinus, Macrobrachium borelli, Claudicuma platensis, Sinelobus stanfordi, Basphaeroma rhonbofrontale and Trichodactylus panoplus were the more common crustaceans in non polluted areas.Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) - Instituto de Limnología "Dr. Raul A. Ringuelet" (ILPLA

Diversidad de invertebrados bentónicos del Río de la Plata

The Rio de la Plata river present along the south coastal fringe different invertebrate assemblages related with substrate type, size sediment grains and organic matter content into the bedsediments. Other important factors influencing the distribution of benthos community in this river are the salinity and suspended solids of the water and the proximity to the riverside which increases the diversity of the habitats. The purpose of this study is to describe the taxonomic composition and ecological characteristics of the meso and macrobenthos associated with the river bed from Delta del Paraná to Magdalena, in Buenos Aires province. The listed taxa are the result of the revised literature and original data obtained from periodical samplings since 1993 till 1998. The principal components of the zoobenthos in the studied area were the allochthonous molluscs Corbicula fluminea on sandy and muddy bottoms and Limnoperna fortunei on hard substrates of the riverside. The nematods and oligochaetes dominated sediments with high allochthonous organic matter content imported from urban effluents. Palaemonetes argentinus, Macrobrachium borelli, Claudicuma platensis, Sinelobus stanfordi, Basphaeroma rhonbofrontale and Trichodactylus panoplus were the more common crustaceans in non polluted areas

The SNAT4 isoform of the system A amino acid transporter is functional in human placental microvillous plasma membrane

Placental system A activity is important for the supply of neutral amino acids needed for fetal growth. There are three system A isoforms: SNAT1, SNAT2 and SNAT4, but the contribution of each to system A-mediated transport is unknown. Here, we have used immunohistochemistry to demonstrate that all three isoforms are present in the syncytiotrophoblast suggesting each plays a role in amino acid transport across the placenta. We next tested the hypothesis that the SNAT4 isoform is functional in microvillous plasma membrane vesicles (MVM) from normal human placenta using a method which exploits the unique property of SNAT4 to transport both cationic amino acids as well as the system A-specific substrate MeAIB. The data show that SNAT4 contribution to system A-specific amino acid transport across MVM is higher in first trimester placenta compared to term (approx. 70% and 33%, respectively, P < 0.01). Further experiments performed under more physiological conditions using intact placental villous fragments suggest a contribution of SNAT4 to system A activity in first trimester placenta but minimal contribution at term. In agreement, Western blotting revealed that SNAT4 protein expression is higher in first trimester MVM compared to term (P < 0.05). This study provides the first evidence of SNAT4 activity in human placenta and demonstrates the contribution of SNAT4 to system A-mediated transport decreases between first trimester and term: our data lead us to speculate that at later stages of gestation SNAT1 and/or SNAT2 are more important for the supply of amino acids required for normal fetal growth