A molecular staging model for accurately dating the endometrial biopsy.

Natural variability in menstrual cycle length, coupled with rapid changes in endometrial gene expression, makes it difficult to accurately define and compare different stages of the endometrial cycle. Here we develop and validate a method for precisely determining endometrial cycle stage based on global gene expression. Our 'molecular staging model' reveals significant and remarkably synchronised daily changes in expression for over 3400 endometrial genes throughout the cycle, with the most dramatic changes occurring during the secretory phase. Our study significantly extends existing data on the endometrial transcriptome, and for the first time enables identification of differentially expressed endometrial genes with increasing age and different ethnicities. It also allows reinterpretation of all endometrial RNA-seq and array data that has been published to date. Our molecular staging model will significantly advance understanding of endometrial-related disorders that affect nearly all women at some stage of their lives, such as heavy menstrual bleeding, endometriosis, adenomyosis, and recurrent implantation failure.

Clinical features and virological confirmation of perinatal dengue infection in Jambi, Indonesia: A case report.

The hyper-endemicity of dengue in Indonesia poses a significant threat of dengue virus (DENV) vertical transmission during pregnancy. A 29-year-old female at 38 weeks of pregnancy presented to hospital with acute fever and later confirmed with DENV infection. Due to signs of fetal distress, the neonate was delivered by emergency caesarean section. The mother developed a dengue critical phase post-caesarean with excessive bleeding and required blood transfusion. During the 6th day of life, the neonate was diagnosed and later confirmed with dengue. Next-generation sequencing of DENV RNA isolated directly from sera of both mother and neonate revealed identical DENV-2 whole-genome sequences. Plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT) detected anti-dengue antibodies in both mother and neonate. Altogether, our data confirmed the occurrence of vertical transmission. Dengue vertical transmission during pregnancy may lead to severe manifestation, hence early diagnosis, close monitoring, and prompt intervention are critical.

Growth characteristics and cytokine/chemokine induction profiles of dengue viruses in various cell lines.

The dengue disease varies clinically from mild fever to hemorrhagic fever up to potentially fatal shock syndrome. Such differences in manifestation of dengue virus (DENV) infection have been ascribed to intrinsic differences in DENVs. Four DENV serotypes or four dengue viruses (DENV-1 to DENV-4) have been clearly distinguished; however, only limited information is available on their biological characteristics in vitro. To shed more light on this subject, replication kinetics of all four DENVs in various cell lines and induction of 26 cytokines/chemokines were investigated. The results showed that, (i) all DENVs replicated relatively similarly in various cell lines, (ii) DENV-1 was most effective in this regard, (iii) A549 cells showed the highest virus replication rate compared to other cells, and (iv) all DENVs induced in A549 cells similar levels of several cytokines/chemokines, namely eotaxin, granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), interferon alpha 2 (IFN-α2), interleukins 6, 8 15 (IL-6, IL-8, IL-15), and IP-10. In conclusion, this study revealed a similarity in growth characteristics and cytokine/chemokine induction profile for all four DENV serotypes in vitro.