Mayumi Sugiura

Japanese version of the Quality of Relationship Inventory: Its reliability and validity among women with recurrent spontaneous abortion

Until now most of the research on social support has concentrated on general support in relationship to the whole group of people around each individual. In contrast, only a few studies have dealt with individual‐specific support (i.e. social support from a particular individual relationship). The Quality of Relationship Inventory (QRI) is a recently developed questionnaire to measure individual‐specific social support. We developed the Japanese version by means of back translation and ascertained its reliability and validity among the Japanese women who had had two recurrent spontaneous abortions without known organic etiologies. Factor analysis revealed that the Japanese QRI had a two‐factor structure, representing supportive and conflictual aspects of a particular relationship (named Factor‐S and Factor‐C, respectively). Each factor showed satisfactory reliability with Cronbachs alphas of 0.95 and 0.89. When the QRI scores were compared with the scales from the Social Support Questionnaire, a measure of general social support, the Factor‐C of the former with respect to the mother correlated negatively with the Social Support Satisfaction of the latter (r = – 0.40; 95% confidence interval (CI) – 0.64 to – 0.09). Childhood experiences with parents also showed expected correlations with the QRI: care received from the parent before age 16 years strongly predicted Factor‐S with that parent (r = 0.50, 95% CI 0.21–0.71 in the case of the mother; r = 0.54, 95% CI 0.27–0.73 in the case of the father). Although we still need to examine the Japanese QRI with different populations, it appears to be a promising measure of individual‐specific relationship for the Japanese population.

Parents, personality or partner? Correlates of marital relationships.

Background Intimate relationships play an important role in the psychological and physical well-being of women during and after pregnancy. Our previous analyses demonstrated the significant role of marital relations on the womans emotional status among a cohort of 61 married Japanese couples with a history of two consecutive spontaneous abortions. Methods The present analyses examined factors which may be related to the wifes perceived marital quality, including her parental rearing experiences, personality of the woman herself, or the personality of the husband. Results The wifes perception of care received from her mother correlated positively with her husbands care whereas overprotection received from the mother also correlated positively with the husbands control. A woman scoring high on the Conscientiousness scale of the five-factor model of personality tended to report more care, and a woman high on the Agreeableness scale less control from her husband, whereas a husband high on the Openness scale tended to show more care in his marital relation. Conclusion The continuity hypothesis between the quality of parental relations in childhood and the quality of intimate bonds in adulthood received partial support in a non-Western sample. This hypothesis merits further exploration, preferably within a more integrated model of marital quality.

Personality, social support, coping and emotional distress after repeated spontaneous abortions

Systematic investigations on the emotional impacts of repeated spontaneous abortions have been few. We mounted a prospective study of a cohort of couples who had experienced two consecutive first trimester spontaneous abortions and for whom no clearly identifiable causes were found. The present report is based on the first part of the study and examines: (1) emotional distress reported by the miscarrying women at six months (median, range 1-12 months) after two abortions; and (2) psychosocial predictors influencing such distress. The mean score of the women on the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised - one of the most popular self-report scales for psychopathology - was 0.38, whereas that for the general population is reported to be 0.26 (the higher the score, the more psychopathology). Fourteen percent of the cohort scored above the cutoff point for mental disorders screening. Factors examined and found non-influential upon the level of emotional distress include: the maternal age; whether the last pregnancy was planned and wished for or not; and coping styles of the women after the abortions. Control by the husbands over the marital relationship and neurotic personality traits of the women increased the emotional distress, whereas the social support the women perceive decreased it. These findings suggest that marital and social support are important in determining the level of psychiatric morbidity after repeated abortions.

Glycogen storage disease type Ia (GSD Ia) during pregnancy: Report of a case complicated by fetal growth restriction and preeclampsia

Glycogen storage disease type Ia (GSD Ia) leads to disturbed glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis due to a deficiency in the enzyme glucose‐6‐phosphatase. A patient with GSD Ia showed hypoglycemia and proteinuria without dietary management since early pregnancy. The patients condition was complicated by hypertension with increase in proteinuria at 22 weeks of gestation. In spite of administration of antihypertensive drugs and dietary management, the disease became more severe with deterioration in the fetal status and inhibition of fetal growth. Thus, a cesarean section was performed at 26 weeks of gestation. The delivered male infant weighing 412 g died at 2 days after birth. The patients blood pressure had normalized within 3 months after delivery, while proteinuria persisted.

Site-specific migration of human fetal melanocytes in volar skin.

BACKGROUND Melanocytes originate from the neural crest and migrate ventrally from the dorsal neural tube during embryogenesis. How human melanocytes locate at their suitable positions during embryogenesis, however, is unclear. Although a growing body of evidence indicates that melanocytes, melanoblasts, and melanocyte stem cells are closely related to hair follicles, little is known about volar skin. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to observe skin development during human fetal period and clarify the site-specific migration process of human fetal sole melanocytes. METHODS We obtained 4-mm punch biopsies from the scalp, back, abdomen, and right sole of 36 aborted fetuses (gestational age 12-21 weeks). We compared the migration process between hairly areas and volar areas by immunohistochemical staining. RESULTS Immunohistochemical examination revealed that gp100 (HMB-45) sensitively detects human melanocytes in embryogenesis. Melanocytes were present at the epidermal base, where hair placodes/buds form at 12-15 weeks gestation. Fetal melanocytes in hair follicles are supplied from the epidermis. In volar skin, melanocytes originally localize only in the acrosyringium, where they migrate deeper into with gland development at 16-18 weeks gestation. Palmoplantar melanocyte migration and maturation processes differ considerably from those of the other hairy skin sites. CONCLUSION Eccrine sweat glands seem to have a central role in the palmoplantar melanocyte migration process, similar to the role of hair follicles in hairy sites.

1141651467 Role of calpain in human sperm

We evaluated the role of calpain in human sperm for fertilization. Semen collected manually from healthy donors with informed consent was liquefied and following percoll gradient centrifugation. After exposure to different concentration of progesterone (P) or under hypoxic condition (H), the samples were used for immunostaining, SDS‐PAGE and western blot analysis. The increase of calcium ion concentration in the sperm was observed by fluorescent microscope (ARGUS‐50CA) system using Fura 2‐AM. The role of calpain for fertilization was speculated from the results of Hamster penetration test, Hamilton Motility Analyzer, Triple satin method and Acrobeads test using calpain inhibitors. Immunostaining in human sperm was observed using antibodies against the micro‐calpain in the types of whole acrosome, equatorial segment, head segment, neck segment or neck and tail segment. Most of these demonstrated acrosome type staining with anti‐pro micro‐calpain antibody. Western blot analysis revealed P or H treatment to cause a concentration or time‐dependent activation of micro‐calpain. In addition, calpain inhibitors significantly reduced the acrosome reaction and penetration. The results suggest that micro‐calpain in human sperm plays an important role for the fertilization.