The placenta is a transient organ that forms during pregnancy to support the growth and
development of the fetus. During human placental development, trophoblast cells …

The human genome contains a large number of retroviral elements acquired over the
process of evolution, some of which are specific to primates. However, as many of these are …

For millions of years, retroviral infections have challenged vertebrates, occasionally leading
to germline integration and inheritance as ERVs, genetic parasites whose remnants today …

Screening human sequence databases for endogenous retroviral elements with coding
envelope genes has revealed 16 candidate genes that we assayed for their fusogenic …

It is estimated that viral infections contribute to 15–20% of all human cancers. As obligatory
intracellular parasites, viruses encode proteins that reprogram host cellular signaling …

The human genome contains many endogenous retroviral sequences, and these have been
suggested to play important roles in a number of physiological and pathological processes …

Midkine (MK) and pleiotrophin (PTN) are low molecular weight proteins with closely related
structures. They are mainly composed of two domains held by disulfide bridges, and there …

The placenta is a fast-evolving organ with large morphological and histological differences
across eutherians, but the genetic changes driving placental evolution have not been fully …

Pleiotrophin (PTN) is a secreted growth factor that induces neurite outgrowth and is
mitogenic for fibroblasts, epithelial, and endothelial cells. During tumor growth PTN can …

The midkine (MK) family consists of only two members, namely heparin-binding growth
factors MK and pleiotrophin (PTN). During embryogenesis, MK is highly expressed in the …