Confined placental mosaicism in CVS and pregnancy outcome

The perinatal outcome of 26 patients with confined placental mosaicism (CPM) detected in chorionic villus sampling (CVS) who wished to continue their pregnancies was compared with that of two controls per patient matched for age and parity (n=52). There were no significant differences in birth weight or gestational age at delivery between patients with CPM and controls. There were no cases of intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) in the CPM patients as compared with two (2/52, 3·8 per cent) in the control group (P>0·05). There was no significant increase in fetal loss between the study group (1/26, 3·6 per cent) and the controls (1/52, 1·9 per cent) (P>0·05).     

The dilemma of chromosomal mosaicism in chorionic villus sampling—‘direct’ versus long-term cultures

Chromosomal mosaicism is one of several unanswered dilemmas in first-trimester prenatal diagnosis. We report the course of a pregnancy in which a normal karyotype was detected on direct CVS preparation and fetal blood, 100 per cent trisomy 21 in one long-term CVS culture, and low-rate trisomy 21 mosaicism in a second long-term CVS culture and amniocentesis. The phenotypically normal infant had a 6 per cent mosaicism of trisomy 21. It appears that a persistent low-rate mosaicism in different tissues may be indicative of the true status of the fetus.     

Prenatal diagnosis of dyssegmental dwarfism

Fetal ultrasound evaluations at 18 weeks gestation on two consecutive pregnancies of a woman who previously gave birth to a stillborn female affected with dyssegmental dwarfism, resulted in accurate diagnoses of unaffected and affected fetuses. Marked disorganization of vertebral bodies and associated encephalocele found in two affected cases in this family are consistent with the original observation of this new syndrome as two major aspects which differentiate it from other forms of lethal dwarfism.     

Survey of selected mycotoxins in food

The contamination of a variety of foods with the mycotoxins aflatoxins B1, B2, G1, M1, ochratoxin A, patulin, and byssochlamic acid was investigated. With the developed methods, the identification was made possible by in situ fluorescence spectral analysis with a far reaching exclusion of substances which simulate sycotoxins. Aflatoxin B1 was detected in 2 samples of 105 spontaneously moulded food specimens and only in 1 of a group of 198 food samples that were obviously not moulded. Aflatoxin M1 was identified in 4 of 60 samples of the so-called wintermilk. Investigated dairy products did not contain aflatoxin M1. Ochratoxin A could be detected twice in 49 spontaneously moulded corn samples, aflatoxin, however, was not found. Further investigations of 50 samples of moulded food revealed ochratoxin A in 2 samples of raw coffee. Food samples obviously not moulded did not contain ochratoxin A. Patulin was detected in 19 of 110 samples of fruit and fruit products, especially in commercial apple juice, in rotten parts of apples, and in moulded fruit products. Byssochlamic acid was not detected in fruit juices or in fruit. The toxicological consequences of mycotoxins in food and possibilities to reduce mycotoxins are discussed.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Tenebrio</Emphasis> beetles use magnetic inclination compass

Animals that guide directions of their locomotion or their migration routes by the lines of the geomagnetic field use either polarity or inclination compasses to determine the field polarity (the north or south direction). Distinguishing the two compass types is a guideline for estimation of the molecular principle of reception and has been achieved for a number of animal groups, with the exception of insects. A standard diagnostic method to distinguish a compass type is based on reversing the vertical component of the geomagnetic field, which leads to the opposite reactions of animals with two different compass types. In the present study, adults of the mealworm beetle Tenebrio molitor were tested by means of a two-step laboratory test of magnetoreception. Beetles that were initially trained to memorize the magnetic position of the light source preferred, during the subsequent test, this same direction, pursuant geomagnetic cues only. In the following step, the vertical component was reversed between the training and the test. The beetles significantly turned their preferred direction by 180 degrees. Our results brought until then unknown original findings that insects, represented here by the T. molitor species, use-in contrast to another previously researched Arthropod, spiny lobster-the inclination compass.