Fetal development is a critical phase in prenatal care, demanding the timely identification of anomalies in ultrasound images to safeguard the well-being of both the unborn child and the mother. Medical imaging has played a pivotal role in detecting fetal abnormalities and malformations. However, despite significant advances in ultrasound technology, the accurate identification of irregularities in prenatal images continues to pose considerable challenges, often necessitating substantial time and expertise from medical professionals. In this review, we go through recent developments in machine learning (ML) methods applied to fetal ultrasound images. Specifically, we focus on a range of ML algorithms employed in the context of fetal ultrasound, encompassing tasks such as image classification, object recognition, and segmentation. We highlight how these innovative approaches can enhance ultrasound-based fetal anomaly detection and provide insights for future research and clinical implementations. Furthermore, we emphasize the need for further research in this domain where future investigations can contribute to more effective ultrasound-based fetal anomaly detection.

Thrombophilia gene variants have been shown to be associated with higher risk of recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). Due to the role of human platelets antigen 1 (HPA-1) and fibrinogen β chain (FGB) as critical players in the coagulation process, their most important variants including rs5918 T > C and rs1800790 G > A were selected to be studied in women affected by RPL. Three milliliters of peripheral blood were drawn from 110 women with history of at least two consecutive spontaneous abortion and 110 healthy women controls. rs5918 T > C and rs1800790 G > A of HPA-1 and FGB genes, respectively, were selected to be analyzed through polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR_RFLP) following DNA isolation using QIAamp DNA Blood Mini Kit. Heterozygote genotype (TC) of HPA-1 gene rs5918 polymorphism was significantly associated with risk of RPL (p-value = 0.02). Although, rs1800790 G > A of FGB gene was not associated with RPL, its combination with rs5918 polymorphism was associated with increased risk of RPL. Owing to the critical roles of FGB and HPA-1 genes in coagulation, and thrombosis and several confinements on the meaningful association between the combination of those polymorphism with risk of RPL, including them in the thrombophilia panel may increase detection rate of hereditary thrombophilia patients. However, further studies with larger sample sizes are required to shed light on the exact role of the studied gene polymorphism, especially rs1800790 G > A of FGB gene variant in pathogenesis of RPL.

Introduction: Lactic acid bacteria, recognized as probiotics, have garnered significant attention as potential adjuvants in chemotherapy for various cancer types, including cervical cancer. In this study, we investigated the anti-cancer properties of two indigenous Iranian strains, Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus paracasei, individually and in combination, targeting human cervical cancer cell ...

Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer in women. Cancer/Testis antigens are immunogenic proteins ectopically expressed in human neoplasms. Synaptonemal complex protein 3 (SYCP3) belongs to cancer/testis genes family involved in meiotic events and spermatogenesis. The aim of this study was to express analysis of SYCP3 in breast cancer and validate it as a breast cancer biomarker. Expression of SYCP3 transcripts in 47 breast tumors, 6 breast cancer cell lines (MCF7, SKBR3, T47D, BT474, MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB 468), 5 normal breast and 2 testis tissues was studied by Real Time RT-PCR reaction. The reference genes phosphoglucomutase 1 and hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyl transferase were used as reactions normalizers. The software tool REST 2009 was applied for statistical analysis of the data. The research was conducted from Apr 2014 to August 2015 in Faculty of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. All of the studied breast cancer cell lines showed very high levels of SYCP3 overexpression in comparison to normal breast (P=0.001) and even to normal testis (P=0.001), except for MCF7 cell line. Breast tumors showed moderately increasing in transcript changes in comparison to normal breast. SYCP3 is a known testis-specific gene, but interestingly five out of six studied breast cancer of cell lines showed higher expression levels of SYCP3 in comparison to normal testis and normal breast tissues. SYCP3 has critical role in cell division with known interaction with the tumor suppressor genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, which are critical genes in breast cancer.