Abnormal placentation is considered as an underlying cause of various pregnancy
complications such as miscarriage, preeclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction, the …

Genomic imprinting is an epigenetic phenomenon that results in monoallelic gene
expression according to parental origin. It has long been established that imprinted genes …

Large-scale phenotyping efforts have demonstrated that approximately 25–30% of mouse
gene knockouts cause intrauterine lethality. Analysis of these mutants has largely focused …

Oct4 is a mammalian POU transcription factor expressed by early embryo cells and germ
cells. We report that the activity of Oct4 is essential for the identity of the pluripotential …

The trophoblast cell lineage is essential for the survival of the mammalian embryo in utero.
This lineage is specified before implantation into the uterus and is restricted to form the fetal …

The placenta is the first organ to form during mammalian embryogenesis. Problems in its
formation and function underlie many aspects of early pregnancy loss and pregnancy …

Blastocyst formation marks the segregation of the first two cell lineages in the mammalian
preimplantation embryo: the inner cell mass (ICM) that will form the embryo proper and the …

Apoptosis can be triggered by members of the Bcl-2 protein family, such as Bim, that share
only the BH3 domain with this family. Gene targeting in mice revealed important …

The Wnt signaling pathway controls stem cell identity in the intestinal epithelium and in
many other adult organs. The transcription factor Ascl2 (a Wnt target gene) is a master …

The mammalian embryo cannot develop without the placenta. Its specialized cells
(trophoblast, endoderm, and extraembryonic mesoderm) form early in development. They …