Protein C and Protein S
Hau C. Kwaan, Meyer M. Samama in Clinical Thrombosis, 2019
Pregnancy, oral contraceptive use, and gender have all been shown to affect protein S status.54,55 In pregnant subjects, protein S activity falls to levels of approximately 40% of normal at 16 weeks of gestation, and remains low throughout the entire pregnancy and into the post-partum period. Comp et al.55 show that this is due to a decrease in total protein S antigen, rather than an increase in the C4b-binding protein. The authors suggest that women congenitally deficient in this protein who experience a further decline in their protein S levels during pregnancy may be at an especially high risk of developing a thrombosis, and they indicate they have encountered three such cases. Therefore, assessment of protein S status in women with previous pregnancy-associated thromboembolism may be warranted and assist in the management of future pregnancies. In a second study, this group of investigators54 observed that women taking oral contraceptives had a significant reduction in free protein S activity as compared to controls, although the values were not nearly as depressed as those observed in pregnant women. Women, in general, had lower levels than men. This finding is somewhat surprising, given the earlier observations that thromboembolism in patients with congenital protein S deficiency is more common in men than in women.46 Further studies are clearly needed to determine the risks of thrombosis in subjects with protein S deficiency.
Conclusion
Kate Reed in Gender and Genetics, 2012
In answer to initial questions set out in the introduction, the book has shown that gender roles in screening and in reproduction are often complex, contradictory and in transition. While women continue to bear the brunt of responsibility for pregnancy and screening this is not exclusively the case as men take on more roles during this process as partners and potential fathers. Where men were involved directly in screening, they also shared some of the material burdens of pregnancy with women. This has the potential to shift the gendered associations of women and pregnancy, posing a further challenge to the existing gendered nature of reproductive genetics. However, while men’s roles have increased, both women and men’s roles continue to be mediated by broader social circumstances, by family friends, class, race and ethnicity. Furthermore, accounts from respondents continue to lend support to earlier arguments made over the influence of the institutions of gender which continue to place constraints on gender-related social change. The kinds of gender roles emphasised by the findings of this study in the context of prenatal screening must not be viewed in isolation. As will be shown in the following section, they are directly reflective of broader trends in gender relations.
Antineoplastic Drugs during Pregnancy
“Bert” Bertis Britt Little in Drugs and Pregnancy, 2022
Pregnancies with gestational ages close to viability (i.e., 24–28 weeks) may usually be continued with only mild to moderate adverse effects on the fetus. Various therapeutic modalities are available, but none are known to be safe for use during pregnancy because pregnancy is a time of rapid cell hyperplasia and hypertrophy, and the goal of cancer treatment is to inhibit both forms of cell growth. Gravidas with pregnancies less than 24 weeks gestational age may best be termination, depending upon the patient’s preference after discussion of the possible adverse outcomes. Pregnancy termination decisions between 24 and 28 weeks are more difficult because the discussion is then concerning termination of a viable fetus. Most frequently, terminations decisions depend upon the patient’s wishes, the type of neoplasm and stage of maternal cancer.
Current status of sperm functional genomics and its diagnostic potential of fertility in bovine (Bos taurus)
Published in Systems Biology in Reproductive Medicine, 2018
Sellappan Selvaraju, Sivashanmugam Parthipan, Lakshminarayana Somashekar, B. Krishnan Binsila, Atul P. Kolte, Arunachalam Arangasamy, Janivara Parameshwaraiah Ravindra, Stephen A. Krawetz
Most of the pregnancies after somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) and cloning are lost during the first trimester of gestation, 30–90 days, i.e., before the placentome is formed, and 97–99% pregnancies are lost at term (Hill et al. 2000; Wells 2005; Arnold et al. 2008). Placental structural abnormalities such as poor development of placentomes, poor allantoic vascularization, hypoplasia of trophoblastic epithelial cells, and reduced number of binucleate cells have also been reported after SCNT (De Sousa et al. 2001; Wells 2005; Palmieri et al. 2008; Chavatte-Palmer et al. 2012). In the SCNT placenta, proteins involved in the regulation of placentogenesis, fetogenesis, immune regulatory proteins, and bovine pregnancy-associated glycoproteins were suppressed. Some of the placental developmental associated transcripts such as PAGs and TXNRD1 which might be essential for mesoderm development are present in the spermatozoon (Table 3). Perhaps they influence the embryo genome for the successful development of placenta and completion of pregnancy.
First trimester neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and pregnancy outcome
Published in Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 2020
Viktoria Christoforaki, Zafeiris Zafeiriou, George Daskalakis, Theodoros Katasos, Charalampos Siristatidis
Various markers have been proposed to predict pregnancy outcome, such as the first trimester screening biochemical markers free-beta subunit human chorionic gonadotropin (Sirikunalai et al. 2016) and pregnancy-associated plasma protein A (PAPP-A) (Valbuena et al. 2015) as well as sFlt-1 and PlGF (Muttukrishna et al. 2011). Additionally, the percentage of natural killer cells has been shown to be useful in order to predict pregnancy outcome (Lee et al. 2013). Maternal anti-Mullerian hormone has also been associated with both early pregnancy loss and foetal aneuploidy (Shim et al. 2015). In miscarriages, the role of a systemic inflammatory response has been investigated using inflammatory biomarkers, such as TNF-a, FNγ, IL-6, and IL-10. It was reported that women with euploid miscarriages had significantly higher levels of the above markers compared to normal pregnant controls (Calleja-Agius et al. 2012).
Quantitative proteomic analysis of down syndrome biomarkers in maternal serum using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ)
Published in Gynecological Endocrinology, 2020
Sheng-Long Zhao, Xiao-Wei Liu, Shao-Wen Wu, Yuan-Yuan Zheng, Wei-Yuan Zhang
Human PSGs can be detected in the maternal serum during the attachment of the blastocyst to the uterine wall [14], and PSG mainly functions in modulating the maternal immune system [15,16]. Therefore, Serum profiles of these proteins are most often used to confirm pregnancy, monitor and forecast embryonic development, and evaluate placental efficiency and the wellbeing of the developing fetus [17]. However, the significantly upregulated of PSG11 levels in pregnancies indicate the pregnant women at risk of spontaneous abortion [18]. Therefore, the obviously change of PSGs level in pregnancies may indicate the abnormal pregnancy. In our study, we also find that PSG11and PSGIIA-a are elevated in maternal serum from pregnant women with DS fetuses. Considering that PSGs play an important role in modulating the maternal immune system, we believe that the elevate PSGs can act as a Marker of DS, and their specific associations with DS need to be further studied.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Assisted Reproductive Technology
- Miscarriage
- Uterus
- Offspring
- Gestation
- Multiple Birth
- Twin
- Sexual Intercourse
- Live Birth
- Stillbirth