K

UNSW Embryology Glossary K

Link to the Original UNSW Embryology Glossary K

Kangaroo Mother Care

(KMC) or Kangaroo care (KC) began in Bogota (Colombia) in 1978. It is therapeutic skin-to-skin contact between an infant and parent where the infant is usually held chest-to-chest in an upright prone position. A Cochrane Database review concluded: "Although KMC appears to reduce severe infant morbidity without any serious deleterious effect reported, there is still insufficient evidence to recommend its routine use in LBW infants. Well designed randomized controlled trials of this intervention are needed." Conde-Agudelo A, Diaz-Rossello JL, Belizan JM. Kangaroo mother care to reduce morbidity and mortality in low birthweight infants. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2003;(2):CD002771.

(More? Neonatal Notes)

karyotype

(Greek, karyon = kernel or nucleus + typos = stamp) Term used to describe the chromosomal (genetic) makeup (complement) of a cell.

(More? Week 1 Notes | Genetic Abnormalities)

keratin

An intermediate filament protein of the cell cytoskeleton. There are many different keratins with different tissue expression profiles. The most common is often identified in skin and mutations in this gene lead to skin defects.

kidney

In humans the metanephros forms the final adult kidney. An excretory organ which also has endocrine functions.

(More? Urogenital Notes)

ketosteroids

A 17-ketosteroid is the excreted inactive derivative (breakdown product) of testosterone formed by conjugation in the liver.

(More? Endocrine Notes)

“knock out” mice

A term used to describe the molecular biology technique of introducing a germ line gene specific disruption that results in mice that do not produce the protein product of that gene, it has been "knocked out". Technique required the development of stem cells to carry out the manipulation.

(More? Stem Cell Notes | Molecular Notes | Mouse Notes)

koilocytes

A visibly human papillomavirus (HPV) infected epithelial cells.

(More? Womens Health Issues - HPV)

Comments

Use this page to access brief definitions of specific embryology terms. Additional information can be accessed from links listed at the end of each definition. Glossary from the UNSW Embryology program compiled and written by Dr Mark Hill. Reference Material used in preparing this glossary list includes: texts listed on page 1 Reading of each notes section, Department of Anatomy Publications, WWW resources from NCBI, NIH, OMIM, NHMRC (Australia), AMA (USA), Office of Rare Diseases (USA), PubMed Medline Dictionaries, MSDS, Merck Manual home edn.

These notes are for Educational Purposes Only Please email Dr Mark Hill if you wish to make a comment about this current project.

Copyright: Dr Mark Hill Created: 01.06.1997 Updated: 11.05.2009

UNSW CRICOS Provider Code No. 00098G