Analysis of Serum Anti-Mullerian Hormone Values for Puerto Rican Women Presenting to a Fertility Center.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the AMH levels in Puerto Rican women presenting to a fertility clinic. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study involving the acquisition of measured AMH levels from patient records dating October 2012- October 2014 (N=250). AMH levels determined by laboratory values were obtained. Data were stratified by age groups (25-29, 30-35, 35-39, 40+). Each dataset was represented as an AMH value at a single time point to determine median, mean and standard deviation for each group. Percentage of change for values were calculated comparing to previous corresponding age group and each group to 25-29 (subset 1) to evaluate declining trend. RESULTS: A total of 250 records were evaluated. The data was segregated into 4 different age groups and their means, medians, and standard deviations were calculated individually. Age group 25-29 AMH values with a mean of 4.94, a standard deviation of 3.17, and a median of 4.75. Age group 30-34 AMH values: mean 4.30, standard deviation 5.63, and median 3.2. Age group 35-39 AMH values: mean 2.58, standard deviation 4.83, median 1.3. Age group 40 + AMH values: mean 1.29, standard deviation 1.54, median 0.85. Results showed a reduction of 47.7% and 73.8% when values of AMH were calculated for ages 35-39 and 40+ and compared to 25-29 years, respectively. CONCLUSION: The results demonstrate AMH levels among Puerto Rican women presenting to a fertility clinic supporting a decline of AMH with advancing age.

Evaluation of Multiple Biological Therapies for Ischemic Cardiac Disease.

The development of cell- and gene-based strategies for regenerative medicine offers a therapeutic option for the repair and potential regeneration of damaged cardiac tissue post-myocardial infarction (MI). Human umbilical cord subepithelial cell-derived stem cells (hUC-SECs), human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hBM-MSCs), and human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs), all derived from human tissue, have been shown to have in vitro and in vivo therapeutic potential. Additionally, S100a1, VEGF165, and stromal-derived factor-1α (SDF-1α) genes all have the potential to improve cardiac function and/or effect adverse remodeling. In this study, we compared the therapeutic potential of hBM-MSCs, hUC-SECs, and hiPSC-CMs along with plasmid-based genes to evaluate the in vivo potential of intramyocardially injected biologics to enhance cardiac function in a mouse MI model. Human cells derived from various tissue types were expanded under hypoxic conditions and injected intramyocardially into mice that had undergone left anterior descending (LAD) artery ligation. Similarly, plasmids were also injected into three groups of mice after LAD ligation. Seven experimental groups were studied in total: (1) control (saline), (2) hBM-MSCs, (3) hiPSC-CMs, (4) hUC-SECs, (5) S100a1 plasmid, (6) VEGF165 plasmid, and (7) SDF-1α plasmid. We evaluated echocardiography, hemodynamic catheterization measurements, and histology at 4 and 12 weeks post-biologic injection. Significant improvement was observed in cardiac function and contractility in hiPSC-CM and S100a1 groups and a significant reduction in left ventricle scar within the hUC-SEC group and a slight improvement in the SDF-1α and VEGF165 groups compared to the control group. These results demonstrate the potential for new biologic therapies to reduce scar burden and improve contractile function.