Conditionally mutant animal model for investigating the invasive trophoblast cell lineage.

Placental development involves coordinated expansion and differentiation of trophoblast cell lineages possessing specialized functions. Among the differentiated trophoblast cell lineages are invasive trophoblast cells, which exit the placenta and invade the uterus, where they restructure the uterine parenchyma and facilitate remodeling of uterine spiral arteries. The rat exhibits deep intrauterine trophoblast cell invasion, a feature shared with human placentation, and is also amenable to gene manipulation using genome-editing techniques. In this investigation, we generated a conditional rat model targeting the invasive trophoblast cell lineage. Prolactin family 7, subfamily b, member 1 (Prl7b1) is uniquely and abundantly expressed in the rat invasive trophoblast cell lineage. Disruption of Prl7b1 did not adversely affect placental development. We demonstrated that the Prl7b1 locus could be effectively used to drive the expression of Cre recombinase in invasive trophoblast cells. Our rat model represents a new tool for investigating candidate genes contributing to the regulation of invasive trophoblast cells and their roles in trophoblast-guided uterine spiral artery remodeling.

CONDITIONALLY MUTANT ANIMAL MODEL FOR INVESTIGATING THE INVASIVE TROPHOBLAST CELL LINEAGE.

Placental development involves coordinated expansion and differentiation of trophoblast cell lineages possessing specialized functions. Among the differentiated trophoblast cell lineages are invasive trophoblast cells, which exit the placenta and invade into the uterus where they restructure the uterine parenchyma and facilitate remodeling of uterine spiral arteries. The rat exhibits deep intrauterine trophoblast cell invasion, a feature shared with human placentation, and is also amenable to gene manipulation using genome editing techniques. In this investigation, we generated a conditional rat model targeting the invasive trophoblast cell lineage. Prolactin family 7, subfamily b, member 1 ( Prl7b1 ) is uniquely and abundantly expressed in the rat invasive trophoblast cell lineage. Disruption of Prl7b1 did not adversely affect placental development. We demonstrated that the Prl7b1 locus could be effectively used to drive the expression of Cre recombinase in invasive trophoblast cells. Our rat model represents a new tool for investigating candidate genes contributing to the regulation of invasive trophoblast cells and their contributions to trophoblast-guided uterine spiral artery remodeling.

Evaluation of an online tobacco cessation course for health professions students.

OBJECTIVE: To implement and evaluate the impact of a semester-long, online, 1-credit elective course designed to promote tobacco cessation counseling proficiency among health professions students. DESIGN: Online technology was used to create an elective course devoted to tobacco cessation, modeled closely after the Rx for Change curriculum. Students from pharmacy, nursing, and other health disciplines enrolled in the course. ASSESSMENT: Students completed pretraining and posttraining survey instruments that assessed their self-reported skills and ability to counsel patients for tobacco cessation. Overall ability to counsel for tobacco cessation and each of the "5 A's" approach for comprehensive counseling (ask, advise, assess, assist, arrange) increased significantly from pretraining to posttraining (p < 0.001). Self-efficacy also increased from 2.2 to 4.1 (p < 0.001; on a 5-point scale). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that an online tobacco cessation course improved student-reported ability and skills to counsel patients on tobacco cessation.