Human endometrial stromal cells inhibit the pro-angiogenic stimulus of hCG in vitro.

During embryo implantation, endometrial angiogenesis is regulated by signals originating from the endometrium itself and the developing embryo. It has been suggested that hCG may play a pro-angiogenic role; therefore, we sought to understand its regulatory role in blood vessel formation in human endometrium using in vivo and in vitro models. In the in vivo model, we screened 16 angiogenesis-related transcripts in the endometrium upon intrauterine administration of hCG.

Androgens Profile in Blood Serum and Follicular Fluid of Women With Poor Ovarian Response During Controlled Ovarian Stimulation Reveals Differences Amongst POSEIDON Stratification Groups: A Pilot Study.

Patients with poor ovarian response (POR) to exogenous gonadotropins stimulation for assisted reproductive technology (ART) have decreased circulating androgens during spontaneous cycles. The Patient-Oriented Strategies Encompassing Individualized Oocyte Number (POSEIDON) is a 4-tier stratification of women with POR to controlled ovarian stimulation (COH) based on age and biomarkers of ovarian reserve has been proposed to maximize the clinical management of this group for ART. The aim of the present study was to characterize the levels of androgens during COH in follicular fluid (FF) and serum in POSEIDON subgroups and compared them with women of normal ovarian response.

[Delayed child bearing in a Chilean public hospital].

Background: Postponement of motherhood is one of the most striking sociodemographic changes of modernity.

Aim: To evaluate the age of primiparous women giving birth at a public hospital in Santiago, Chile.

Material And Methods: Retrospective study, assessing the age and nationality of all women whose delivery occurred between 2009 and 2017 in a single hospital.

[A new fetal death classification system].

Background: Stillbirth is the mayor contributor to perinatal mortality.

Aim: To report a system for classification of fetal deaths.

Material And Methods: Retrospective cohort study of 29,916 births with 258 fetal deaths that occurred in a public hospital.

[Obesity, a risk factor for ascending bacterial infection during pregnancy].

Background: Obesity in pregnancy is associated with significantly higher rates of infection.

Aim: To compare the infectious morbidity in pregnant women with normal and altered body mass index (BMI).

Material And Methods: Cross sectional retrospective study of 6,150 patients who had delivery or second trimester abortion during 2012.

Differential expression of upstream stimulatory factor (USF) 2 variants in eutopic endometria from women with endometriosis: estradiol regulation.

Background: Endometriosis, pro-inflammatory and invasive benign disease estrogen dependent, abnormally express in endometria the enzyme P450Arom, positively regulated by steroid factor-1 (SF-1). Our objective was to study the nuclear protein contents of upstream stimulating factor 2 (USF2a and USF2b), a positive regulator of SF-1, throughout the menstrual cycle in eutopic endometria from women with and without (control) endometriosis and the involvement of nuclear estrogen receptors (ER) and G-coupled protein estrogen receptor (GPER)-1.

Results: Upstream stimulating factor 2 protein contents were higher in mid (USF2b) and late (USF2a and USF2b) secretory phase in eutopic endometria from endometriosis than control (p < 0.

[Prevalence of endometriosis in 287 women undergoing surgical sterilization in Santiago Chile].

Background: The clinical manifestations of endometriosis are infertility, dysmenorrhea, sexuality disturbances, and chronic pelvic pain. It is the cause of 30 to 50% of infertility cases. In developed countries, the prevalence of endometriosis among women undergoing surgical sterilization is approximately 6%.

[Effects of smoking on plasma antimüllerian hormone concentrations among infertile women].

Background: Smoking may hamper female fertility, probably modifying ovarian reserve. Antimüllerian hormone (AMH) is an accurate marker for ovarian reserve.

Aim: To look for an association between smoking status and plasma AMH concentration.

[Risk factors for preterm deliveries in a public hospital].

Background: Preterm births are responsible for 75 to 80% of perinatal mortality.

Aim: To determine the factors associated with preterm births, using maternal clinical data, laboratory results and pathological placental findings.

Patients And Methods: Retrospective study of 642 preterm single births at 22-34 weeks' gestation.

Decreased anti-Müllerian hormone concentration in follicular fluid of female smokers undergoing artificial reproductive techniques.

Background: Several reports indicate that women who smoke have an increased risk of failure to conceive compared with their non-smoker counterparts. Here, we assessed the effect of smoking during the Assisted Reproduction Therapy (ART) on a potential marker of ovarian reserve, anti-müllerian hormone (AMH) in the follicular fluid (FF).

Materials And Methods: This was a cohort prospective study to assess the association between cigarette smoking and AMH concentrations in FF in fifty-six women undergoing their first ART cycle.

[Association between motherhood postponement and socioeconomic status].

Background: Delayed motherhood is a common phenomenon in the developed world, where the age at first delivery is around 30 years. In Chile the National Institute of Statistics established that this age has remained around 23 years for more than two decades. Motherhood postponement may be modulated by socioeconomic status.

P450Arom induction in isolated control endometrial cells by peritoneal fluid from women with endometriosis.

Objective: To study the effect of peritoneal fluid from women with (PF-E) and without (PF-C) endometriosis on P(450)Arom expression in endometrial cells.

Design: Experimental study.

Setting: University research unit.

Cytoplasmic and nuclear STAT3 in GH-stimulated fibroblasts of children with idiopathic short stature.

Background: STAT5, which plays an important role in GH signal transduction, has been studied extensively in children with growth retardation, but there is scarce information regarding STAT3.

Aim: We determined total and phosphorylated STAT3 after GH stimulation in fibroblasts from children with idiopathic short stature (ISS) and control children with normal stature.

Subjects And Methods: We studied 15 prepubertal children (age 7.

Assessment of diagnostic competence of plasmatic androgens on polycystic ovary syndrome based on receiver operator characteristic curves.

Objective: This study was designed to assess the diagnostic potency of different androgens in hyperandrogenaemia criterion on polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) based on receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves analysis.

Methods: We evaluated 55 PCOS patients and 27 healthy fertile women (control). Androgen evaluation included bio-available testosterone (BAT) by ammonium sulphate precipitation, Free Testosterone Index (FTI), androstenedione (A), total testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEA-S).

Men's participation in psychologic counseling services offered during in vitro fertilization treatments.

Objective: To assess frequency of male participation in psychologic support services during IVF treatments.

Design: Retrospective descriptive study.

Setting: University infertility clinic.

[Relationship between periodontal diseases and ascending bacterial infection with preterm delivery].

Background: There is an association between periodontal diseases and preterm delivery.

Aim: To assess the relationship between periodontal diseases, ascending bacterial infection and placental pathology with preterm delivery.

Patients And Methods: A periodontal examination and collection of amniotic fluid and subgingival plaque samples were performed in women with preterm labor with intact membranes, without an evident clinical cause or preterm premature rupture of membranes, without clinical chorioamnionitis or labor and a gestational age between 24 and 34 weeks.

Nuclear factor kappaB pathway and interleukin-6 are affected in eutopic endometrium of women with endometriosis.

In order to investigate the role of the nuclear factor kappaB (NFKB) pathway on gene expression in the eutopic endometrium in endometriosis, and in particular of interleukin-6 (IL6), we evaluated RELA, IkappaB kinase (CHUK), NFKBIA and IL6 expressions and NFKB DNA binding in eutopic endometrium from women with endometriosis. Eutopic endometrium was obtained from 37 women with endometriosis and 42 fertile women during laparoscopy. We analysed RELA, CHUK, NFKBIA and IL6 mRNA levels (RT-PCR); RELA, CHUK and NFKBIA proteins and p-NFKBIA/NFKBIA ratio (western blot); and NFKB binding (DNA shift assay) and IL6 concentration (ELISA) in endometrial explants.

Recent cigarette smoking and assisted reproductive technologies outcome.

Objective: To assess the association between recent cigarette smoking (CS) in female and male partners and assisted reproduction technology (ART) outcomes.

Design: Cohort prospective study.

Setting: University ART program in Chile.

The human corpus luteum: life cycle and function in natural cycles.

Objective: To summarize recent advances in the understanding of the endocrine signaling pathways between the hypothalamus, pituitary, and human corpus luteum (CL); to examine the major paracrine and autocrine mechanisms and the key genes and proteins involved in CL development, function, and regression in natural cycles; to review the endocrine and molecular response of the midluteal phase CL to in vivo administration of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG); and to describe the ultrasonographic and Doppler evaluation of the ovary and endometrium throughout the luteal phase.

Design: Published data in the literature, including the basic and clinical research studies of the authors.

Setting: University-affiliated hospital and research centers.

Pharmacokinetics of a single oral dose of 1.5-mg levonorgestrel when administered as 750-mug tablets or as 30-microg minipills.

We examined the pharmacokinetics of a single dose of 1.5 mg of levonorgestrel when administered orally in two different formulations: two tablets of 0.75 mg or 50 minipills of 30 microg of levonorgestrel.

Evaluation of steroid receptors, coregulators, and molecules associated with uterine receptivity in secretory endometria from untreated women with polycystic ovary syndrome.

Objective: To evaluate gene and protein expression of steroid receptors, nuclear receptor coregulators, and uterine receptivity markers in midsecretory phase endometria from untreated women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Design: Case-control study.

Setting: Hospital research unit.

Prospective identification of pregnant women drinking four or more standard drinks (> or = 48 g) of alcohol per day.

We aimed to identify drinking rates in a prospectively identified cohort of pregnant women, and subsequently, to identify the drinkers of 48 g or more alcohol/day among them, by using complementary methods for verifying self-reported drinking habits. A research team of social workers and health professionals at the Maipú Clinic, located in a lower middle class neighborhood of Santiago, Chile, conducted interviews of women attending a prenatal clinic between August 1995 and July 2000. Women whose interview responses met predefined criteria (identified in the text) were further evaluated by home visits.

Augmented cell survival in eutopic endometrium from women with endometriosis: expression of c-myc, TGF-beta1 and bax genes.

Background: Endometriosis is a common gynaecological disorder characterized by the presence of endometrial tissue outside of the uterus. The fragments in normal menstruation are composed of necrotic and living cells, which do not survive in ectopic locations because of programmed cell death. The aim of this study was to evaluate if the balance between cell proliferation and apoptosis is changed in eutopic endometrium from women with endometriosis throughout the menstrual cycle by studying bax (pro-apoptotic), c-myc (regulator of cell cycle) and TGF-beta1 (involved in cell differentiation) genes.

Pharmacokinetics and endometrial tissue levels of levonorgestrel after administration of a single 1.5-mg dose by the oral and vaginal route.

Objective: To determine the pharmacokinetics and endometrial tissue levels of levonorgestrel when taken as a single dose of 1.5 mg either orally or vaginally by healthy women in the periovulatory phase of their menstrual cycle.

Design: Prospective randomized study.

Differential expression of endometrial integrins and progesterone receptor during the window of implantation in normo-ovulatory women treated with clomiphene citrate.

Objective: To assess the effect of clomiphene citrate (CC) on endometrial epithelial integrins and P receptors (PR) during the window of implantation.

Design: Controlled, prospective, clinical study.

Setting: Teaching hospital and university research laboratory.