Figure 2From: A link between high serum levels of human chorionic gonadotrophin and chorionic expression of its mature functional receptor (LHCGR) in Down's syndrome pregnanciesThe structure of LHCGR mRNA and expression in chorionic villous samples (CVS) from DS and other trisomic pregnancies. a) the organization of exons 1–11 in full-length (FL) LHCGR mRNA (open boxes) and possible alternatively spliced isoforms 1–7 [41-43]. The sequences deleted from the isoforms are indicated by closed boxes. Regions of mRNA encoding the extracellular domain (ECD), transmembrane (TM) domain, the hinge region and the intra-cellular domain (ICD) are shown. The regions of cDNA (exons 1–5 and exon 11) amplified by Q-PCR are indicated by bidirectional arrows. b) chorionic LHCGR mRNA expression (exons 1–5) in control (N = 24), T21 [DS, N = 23], T18 (N = 8) and T13 (N = 3) pregnancies; c) chorionic LHCGR mRNA expression (exon 11) in control (N = 15) and T21 (N = 18) pregnancies. The median values and 95% confidence ranges of RNA expression in each pregnancy condition are shown; N = number of patient samples analyzed. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01.Back to article page