Non-smoking pregnant women and their fetuses are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke as a result of living in multiunit housing.

This study investigates whether pregnant women and their fetuses are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) as a result of living in apartments. We measured cotinine concentrations in serum, a biomarker of exposure to ETS, in non-smoking women's umbilical cord blood collected at delivery and in maternal blood drawn shortly after delivering a baby. Concurrently, information was collected regarding the women's housing situation, whether family members or co-workers smoked, and other potential exposure factors. Newborns whose non-smoking mothers lived in an apartment during pregnancy were more than three times (OR 3.17, 95% CI 1.62-6.21) more likely to have detectable levels of cotinine in their cord blood serum than babies whose mothers lived in a detached house. There is a strong association between detectable concentrations of cotinine in cord blood serum and living in an apartment, even after adjusting for confounders, such as exposure at home or at work. A similar association was observed between the detectable levels of cotinine in maternal serum and living in an apartment (OR 1.95, 95% CI 1.03-3.71).

The relationship between maternal-fetal attachment and cigarette smoking over pregnancy.

Cigarette smoking during pregnancy is one of the most preventable causes of infant morbidity and mortality, yet 80 % of women who smoked prior to pregnancy continue to smoke during pregnancy. Past studies have found that lower maternal-fetal attachment predicts smoking status in pregnancy, yet past research has not examined whether maternal-fetal attachment predicts patterns or quantity of smoking among pregnant smokers. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between maternal-fetal attachment and patterns of maternal smoking among pregnant smokers. We used self-reported and biochemical markers of cigarette smoking in order to better understand how maternal-fetal attachment relates to the degree of fetal exposure to nicotine. Fifty-eight pregnant smokers participated in the current study. Women completed the Maternal-Fetal Attachment Scale, reported weekly smoking behaviors throughout pregnancy using the Timeline Follow Back interview, and provided a saliva sample at 30 and 35 weeks gestation and 1 day postpartum to measure salivary cotinine concentrations. Lower maternal-fetal attachment scores were associated with higher salivary cotinine at 30 weeks gestation and 1 day postpartum. As well, women who reported lower fetal attachment reported smoking a greater maximum number of cigarettes per day, on average, over pregnancy. Lower maternal-fetal attachment is associated with greater smoking in pregnancy. Future research might explore whether successful smoking cessation programs improve maternal assessments of attachment to their infants.

CLUE-TIPS, clustering methods for pattern analysis of LC-MS data.

Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) based proteomics is an important tool in detecting changes in peptide/protein abundances in samples potentially leading to the discovery of disease biomarker candidates. We present CLUE-TIPS (Clustering Using Euclidean distance in Tanimoto Inter-Point Space), an approach that compares complex proteomic samples for similarity/dissimilarity analysis. In CLUE-TIPS, an intersample distance feature map is generated from filtered, aligned and binarized raw LC-MS data by applying the Tanimoto distance metric to obtain normalized similarity scores between all sample pairs for each m/z value. We developed clustering and visualization methods for the intersample distance map to analyze various samples for differences at the sample level as well as the individual m/z level. An approach to query for specific m/z values that are associated with similarity/dissimilarity patterns in a set of samples was also briefly described. CLUE-TIPS can also be used as a tool in assessing the quality of LC-MS runs. The presented approach does not rely on tandem mass-spectrometry (MS/MS), isotopic labels or gels and also does not rely on feature extraction methods. CLUE-TIPS suite was applied to LC-MS data obtained from plasma samples collected at various time points and treatment conditions from immunosuppressed mice implanted with MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. The generated raw LC-MS data was used for pattern analysis and similarity/dissimilarity detection. CLUE-TIPS successfully detected the differences/similarities in samples at various time points taken during the progression of tumor, and also recognized differences/similarities in samples representing various treatment conditions.

A proteomic analysis of the plasma glycoproteins of a MCF-7 mouse xenograft: a model system for the detection of tumor markers.

In this study, we report a plasma proteomic analysis of a mouse MCF7 xenograft, using a novel platform named M-LAC (multilectin affinity chromatography), in an attempt to identify putative serum biomarkers of tumor presence and response to therapy. The use of the M-LAC platform enabled us to focus on secreted proteins as well as remove interference from serum albumin and other nonglycosylated proteins. The study focused on the MCF7 human xenograft tumor model which enabled us to distinguish tumor proteins (human peptide sequences) from host-derived murine proteins, potentially discriminating tumor- versus supporting tissue-derived markers. A large set of murine proteins was identified in this study, including several signaling molecules such as EGFR, interleukin-6 receptor, protein-kinase C, and phosphatidylinositol kinase which changed in plasma levels relative to tumor-free animals. We also detected in the samples with maximal tumor growth a number of human tumor-derived proteins linked to cell signaling, immune response, and transcriptional regulation. This is the first report where tumor-derived peptides could be detected in the serum of a xenograft model. We conclude that the M-LAC approach may be used to detect plasma proteins of potential biological significance in tumor-bearing animals and warrants further study in terms of increasing the sensitivity of the method for the characterization of low level tumor markers and to explore the applicability of these markers for human studies.