The Use of Atomic Force Microscopy in Comprehensive Assessment of the "Mother-Placenta-Fetus" System in Obstetric and Endocrine Pathology during Pregnancy.

Atomic force microscopy is not very popular in practical health care, therefore, its potential is not studied enough, for example, in obstetrics when studying the "mother-placenta-fetus" system. Our study summarizes the possibilities of using atomic force microscopy for detection of various circulatory disorders and vascular changes at the microscopic level in the uterus (endometrium and myometrium), placenta, and umbilical cord in the main variants of obstetric and endocrine pathology. For instance, in the case of endocrine pathologies, changes in the form of stasis, sludge, diapedesis, ischemia, destruction and separation of endotheliocytes in villous blood vessels were found in the mother. The oxygen content in erythrocytes also naturally decreased in pathologies; poikilo- and anisocytosis were observed.

Preliminary Assessment of the Mucosal Toxicity of Tea Tree (Melaleuca alternifolia) and Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) Essential Oils on Novel Porcine Uterus Models.

Antimicrobial resistance, an ever-growing global crisis, is strongly linked to the swine production industry. In previous studies, Melaleuca alternifolia and Rosmarinus officinalis essential oils have been evaluated for toxicity on porcine spermatozoa and for antimicrobial capabilities in artificial insemination doses, with the future perspective of their use as antibiotic alternatives. The aim of the present research was to develop and validate in vitro and ex vivo models of porcine uterine mucosa for the evaluation of mucosal toxicity of essential oils. The in vitro model assessed the toxicity of a wider range of concentrations of both essential oils (from 0.2 to 500 mg/mL) on sections of uterine tissue, while the ex vivo model was achieved by filling the uterine horns. The damage induced by the oils was assessed by Evans Blue (EB) permeability assay and histologically. The expression of ZO-1, a protein involved in the composition of tight junctions, was assessed through immunohistochemical and immunofluorescence analysis. The results showed that low concentrations (0.2-0.4 mg/mL) of both essential oils, already identified as non-spermicidal but still antimicrobial, did not alter the structure and permeability of the swine uterine mucosa. Overall, these findings strengthen the hypothesis of a safe use of essential oils in inseminating doses of boar to replace antibiotics.

Detailed endometrial immune assessment of both normal and adverse reproductive outcome populations.

PURPOSE: Using a comprehensive flow cytometric panel, do endometrial immune profiles in adverse reproductive outcomes such as repeat implantation failure (RIF) and repeat pregnancy loss (RPL) differ from each other and male-factor controls? METHODS: Six-hundred and twelve patients had an endometrial biopsy to assess the immunophenotype. History on presentation was used to subdivide the population into recurrent implantation failure (RIF) [n = 178], recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) [n = 155], primary infertility [n = 130] and secondary infertility [n = 114]. A control group was utilised for comparative purposes [n = 35] and lymphocyte subpopulations were described. RESULTS: Distinct lymphocyte percentage differences were noted across the populations. Relative to controls and RPL, patients with a history of RIF had significantly raised uterine NKs (53.2 vs 45.2 & 42.9%, p < 0.0001). All sub-fertile populations had increased percentage peripheral type NKs (p = 0.001), and exhibited increased CD69+ activation (p = 0.005), higher levels of B cells (p < 0.001), elevated CD4:CD8 ratio (p < 0.0001), lower T-regs (p = 0.034) and a higher proportion of Th1+ CD4s (p = 0.001). Patient aetiology confers some distinct findings, RPL; pNK, Bcells and CD4 elevated; RIF; uNK and CD56 raised while CD-8 and NK-T lowered. CONCLUSIONS: Flow cytometric endometrial evaluation has the ability to provide a rapid and objective analysis of lymphocyte subpopulations. The findings show significant variations in cellular proportions of immune cells across the patient categories relative to control tissue. The cell types involved suggest that a potential differential pro-inflammatory bias may exist in patients with a history of adverse reproductive outcomes. Immunological assessment in appropriate populations may provide insight into the underlying aetiology of some cases of reproductive failure.

Assessment of the estrogenic activities of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L) sprout isoflavone extract in ovariectomized rats.

AIM: Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L) is a traditional Uighur herb. In this study we investigated the estrogenic activities of the isoflavones extracted from chickpea sprouts (ICS) in ovariectomized rats. METHODS: Ten-week-old virgin Sprague-Dawley female rats were ovariectomized (OVX). The rats were administered via intragastric gavage 3 different doses of ICS (20, 50, or 100 mg·kg(-1)·d(-1)) for 5 weeks. Their uterine weight and serum levels of 17ß-estradiol (E2), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) were measured. The epithelial height, number of glands in the uterus, and number of osteoclasts in the femur were histologically quantified, and the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) was assessed immunohistochemically. Bone structural parameters, including bone mineral density (BMD), bone volume/tissue volume (BV/TV), trabecular thickness (Tb.Th) and trabecular separation (Tb.Sp) were measured using Micro-CT scanning. RESULTS: Treatments of OVX rats with ICS (50 or 100 mg·kg(-1)·d(-1)) produced significant estrogenic effects on the uteruses, including the increases in uterine weight, epithelial height and gland number, as well as in the expression of the cell proliferation marker PCNA. The treatments changed the secretory profile of ovarian hormones and pituitary gonadotropins: serum E2 level was significantly increased, while serum LH and FSH levels were decreased compared with the vehicle-treated OVX rats. Furthermore, the treatments significantly attenuated the bone loss, increased BMD, BV/TV and Tb.Th and decreased Tb.Sp and the number of osteoclasts. Treatment of OVX rats with the positive control drug E2 (0.25 mg·kg(-1)·d(-1)) produced similar, but more prominent effects. CONCLUSION: ICS exhibits moderate estrogenic activities as compared to E2 in ovariectomized rats, suggesting the potential use of ICS for the treatment of menopausal symptoms and osteoporosis caused by estrogen deficiency.

[Morphometric characteristics (assessment of ploidy) of the degree of differentiation of uterine body adenocarcinoma]. / Morfometricheskaia (otsenka ploidnosti) kharakteristika stepeni differentsirovki adenokartsinom tela matki.

53 histological slides obtained from 4 patients aged 35-68 years with diagnosis of uterine carcinoma without invasion (16 patients) and tumor invasion into uterine muscular membrane (24 patients) were retrospectively analyzed. On the basis of morphometry and ploidometry of 2989 nuclei on the image analyzer Imager-CG (Russia) with a computer program Avtan-San, a complex of diagnostic criteria characterizing the grade of malignancy of uterine tumors was obtained. Differential diagnostic ploidometric characteristics of 4 degrees of tumor progression are described. With the process intensification the amount of genetic material in tumor cell nuclei increase 1.7-fold, proliferative activity 2.2-fold, number of polyploid cells--1.5-fold. These data specify the degree of differentiation of uterine body adenocarcinoma and help to plan treatment policy for patients with uterine carcinoma.

Preliminary assessment of luteolin as an affinity ligand for type II estrogen--binding sites in rat uterine nuclear extracts.

Naturally occurring bioflavonoids such as luteolin compete for [3H]estradiol binding to nuclear type II sites and mimic methyl p-hydroxyphenyllactate (MeHPLA) as ligands for this cell regulatory protein. More importantly, luteolin (3',4',5,7-tetrahydroxyflavone) contains catechol hydroxyl groups on the A and B rings that may form quinones capable of binding covalently to proteins; therefore, we evaluated luteolin as a potential affinity ligand for rat uterine nuclear type II sites. The preliminary experiments presented in this manuscript demonstrate that luteolin and a related bioflavonoid, 4,7-dihydroxyflavone (DHF), are competitive inhibitors of [3H]estradiol binding to type II sites in ammonium sulfate (AmSO4) extracts of rat uterine nuclei. This high affinity (Kd 5-10 nM) interaction is specific for type II sites, and neither compound binds to the estrogen receptor (ER). More importantly, the interaction of luteolin with nuclear type II sites was irreversible, whereas DHF readily exchanged with [3H]estradiol for type II sites in these preparations. These findings suggest that this nonexchangable occupancy of type II sites by luteolin is likely to involve covalent attachment. Spectrophotometric analysis of type II site preparations pretreated with luteolin also confirmed the [3H]estradiol exchange assay data, demonstrating that the ligand attachment is irreversible. Because luteolin did not affect [3H]estradiol binding to the ER in uterine cytosol, we suspect that this bioflavonoid may not be simply randomly interacting with a multiplicity of proteins to generate covalent complexes. These preliminary findings suggest that high-affinity binding of luteolin by type II sites is prerequisite to covalent attachment and that this bioflavonoid may be a suitable affinity ligand for the purification of this protein.