Downsyndrome.com

Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions

BALTIMORE, Jan. 24 (AScribe Newswire) — Researchers at Johns Hopkins restored the normal growth of specific nerve cells in the cerebellum of mouse models of Down syndrome (DS) that were stunted by this genetic condition. The cerebellum is the rear, lower part of the brain that controls signals from the muscles to coordinate balance and motor learning.

The finding is important, investigators say, because the cells rescued by this treatment represent potential targets for future therapy in human babies with DS. And it suggests that …

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To the Editor:

The literature on invasive trophoblast antigen (ITA) as a Down syndrome marker in either maternal urine or serum has been remarkably inconsistent, and very few data on the utility of ITA as a first-trimester marker have been published. We therefore read with interest the study on maternal serum ITA and first-trimester Down syndrome screening by Palomaki et al. (1). Unfortunately, we feel that this study does little to clarify the utility of ITA.

The dataset for the study by Palomaki et al. consists of 54 Down syndrome cases and 276 controls from a previously published NIH trial of …

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