Reduced Representation and Whole-Genome Sequencing Approaches Highlight Beluga Whale Populations Associated to Eastern Canada Summer Aggregations.

Effective conservation strategies inherently depend on preserving populations, which in turn requires accurate tools for their detection. Beluga whales () inhabit the circumpolar Arctic and form discrete summer aggregations. Previous genetic studies using mitochondrial and microsatellite loci have delineated distinct populations associated to summer aggregations but the extent of dispersal and interbreeding among these populations remains largely unknown.

Vaginal microbiota stability over 18 months in young student women in France.

Purpose: Non-optimal vaginal microbiota lacking lactobacilli and comprising a wide array of anaerobic bacteria, typified by community state type (CST) IV, have been associated with adverse gynecological and pregnancy outcomes. Here, we investigate the stability of the vaginal microbiota sampled every 6 months over 18 months and how samples distantly collected combined with exposures could provide insight on future microbiota compositional changes.

Methods: Vaginal microbiota dynamics were analyzed in 241 female students aged 18-24 years and negative for Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

Genomic architecture and population structure of Boreogadus saida from Canadian waters.

The polar cod, Boreogadus saida, is an abundant and ubiquitous forage fish and a crucial link in Arctic marine trophic dynamics. Our objective was to unravel layers of genomic structure in B. saida from Canadian waters, specifically screening for potential hybridization with the Arctic cod, Arctogadus glacialis, large chromosomal inversions, and sex-linked regions, prior to interpreting population structure.

Diving into broad-scale and high-resolution population genomics to decipher drivers of structure and climatic vulnerability in a marine invertebrate.

Species with widespread distributions play a crucial role in our understanding of climate change impacts on population structure. In marine species, population structure is often governed by both high connectivity potential and selection across strong environmental gradients. Despite the complexity of factors influencing marine populations, studying species with broad distribution can provide valuable insights into the relative importance of these factors and the consequences of climate-induced alterations across environmental gradients.

Does hyaluronic acid gel reduce intrauterine adhesions after dilation and curettage in women with miscarriage? A Multicentric randomized controlled trial (HYFACO Study).

Background: Miscarriage is a frequent problem that requires dilation and curettage in 30% of cases. This routine surgery may lead to intrauterine adhesions and severe infertility. Hyaluronic acid gel is known to reduce intrauterine adhesions after hysteroscopic surgery.

Harvest is associated with the disruption of social and fine-scale genetic structure among matrilines of a solitary large carnivore.

Harvest can disrupt wildlife populations by removing adults with naturally high survival. This can reshape sociospatial structure, genetic composition, fitness, and potentially affect evolution. Genetic tools can detect changes in local, fine-scale genetic structure (FGS) and assess the interplay between harvest-caused social and FGS in populations.

Grape polyphenols and exercise training have distinct molecular effects on cardiac hypertrophy in a model of obese insulin-resistant rats.

Obesity and exercise lead to structural changes in heart such as cardiac hypertrophy. The underlying signaling pathways vary according to the source of the overload, be it physiological (exercise) or pathologic (obesity). The physiological pathway relies more on PI3K-Akt signaling while the pathologic pathway involves calcineurin-Nuclear factor of activated T-cells activation and fibrosis accumulation.

A Framework Proposal for Quality and Safety Measurement in Gynecologic Emergency Care.

Objective: To define and assess the prevalence of potentially life-threatening gynecologic emergencies among women presenting for acute pelvic pain for the purpose of developing measures to audit quality of care in emergency departments.

Methods: We conducted a mixed-methods multicenter study at gynecologic emergency departments in France and Belgium. A modified Delphi procedure was first conducted in 2014 among health care professionals to define relevant combinations of potentially life-threatening conditions and near misses in the field of gynecologic emergency care.

Offspring mass variation in tree swallows: A case of bet-hedging?

The evolution of reproductive strategies is affected by the ability of organisms to deal with future environmental conditions. When environments are temporally unpredictable, however, it is difficult to anticipate optimal offspring phenotype. Diversification of offspring phenotypes, a strategy called diversified bet-hedging, may allow parents to maximize their fitness by reducing between-year variation in reproductive success.

Effects of blood parasite infection and innate immune genetic diversity on mating patterns in a passerine bird breeding in contrasted habitats.

Genetic diversity at immune genes and levels of parasitism are known to affect patterns of (dis)assortative mating in several species. Heterozygote advantage and/or good genes should shape mate choice originating from pathogen/parasite-driven selection at immune genes. However, the stability of these associations, and whether they vary with environmental conditions, are still rarely documented.

No Additive Effects of Polyphenol Supplementation and Exercise Training on White Adiposity Determinants of High-Fat Diet-Induced Obese Insulin-Resistant Rats.

One of the major insulin resistance instigators is excessive adiposity and visceral fat depots. Individually, exercise training and polyphenol intake are known to exert health benefits as improving insulin sensitivity. However, their combined curative effects on established obesity and insulin resistance need further investigation particularly on white adipose tissue alterations.

Improving the quality of transvaginal ultrasound scan by simulation training for general practice residents.

Background: Ultrasonography (US) is an essential tool for the diagnosis of acute gynecological conditions. General practice (GP) residents are involved in the first-line management of gynecologic emergencies. They are not familiar with US equipment.

Combination of nutritional polyphenols supplementation with exercise training counteracts insulin resistance and improves endurance in high-fat diet-induced obese rats.

Separately, polyphenols and exercise are known to prevent insulin resistance (IR) but their combined curative effects on established obesity and IR require further investigation. Therefore, we compared the metabolic effects of a combination of exercise and grape polyphenols supplementation in obese IR rats with high-fat diet (EXOPP) to the effect of high-fat diet alone (HF) or with a nutritional supplementation of grape polyphenols (PP) or with endurance exercise (EXO) during 8 wks. We observed an improvement of systemic and skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity in EXO and EXOPP rats.

Decreased RNF41 expression leads to insulin resistance in skeletal muscle of obese women.

Context: Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) activation contributes to obesity-associated insulin resistance in skeletal muscles (SM). TLR4 signaling involves two pathways: the myeloid differentiation primary response gene 88 (MyD88) leading to inflammatory cytokines production and the toll/interleukin-1 receptor domain-containing adapter-inducing interferon (IFN) I (TRIF)-dependent pathways leading to type 1 interferon (IFNI) and interferon stimulated genes (ISG) expression. The E3 ubiquitin ligase RNF41 allows the preferential activation of the TRIF-IFNI pathway; however, its role in insulin response has not been reported.

Discovery and Optimization of HKT288, a Cadherin-6-Targeting ADC for the Treatment of Ovarian and Renal Cancers.

Despite an improving therapeutic landscape, significant challenges remain in treating the majority of patients with advanced ovarian or renal cancer. We identified the cell-cell adhesion molecule cadherin-6 () as a lineage gene having significant differential expression in ovarian and kidney cancers. HKT288 is an optimized CDH6-targeting DM4-based antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) developed for the treatment of these diseases.

Interest of colchicine in the treatment of acute myocardial infarct responsible for heart failure in a mouse model.

Background: Inflammation is deeply involved in the pathophysiology of ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) lesions and ventricular remodeling due to an acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Colchicine as a pleiotropic anti-inflammatory molecule may exert cardioprotective effects under acute ischemia. Here, we aimed to evaluate the impact of colchicine on reperfusion injury in a mouse model.

Colonic mesenchyme differentiates into smooth muscle before its colonization by vagal enteric neural crest-derived cells in the chick embryo.

During development, the gastrointestinal (GI) tract arises from a primary tube composed of mesoderm and endoderm. The mesoderm gives rise to the digestive mesenchyme, which in turn differentiates into multiple tissues, namely the submucosa, the interstitial cells of Cajal and the smooth muscle cells (SMCs). Concomitant with these early patterning events, the primitive GI tract is colonized by vagal enteric neural crest-derived cells (vENCDCs), a population of cells that gives rise to the enteric nervous system, the intrinsic innervation of the GI tract.

Evolutionary potential of morphological traits across different life-history stages.

Despite accumulating examples of selection acting on heritable traits in the wild, predicted evolutionary responses are often different from observed phenotypic trends. Various explanations have been suggested for these mismatches. These include within-individual changes across lifespan that can create important variation in genetic architecture of traits and selection acting on them, but also potential problems with the methodological approach used to predict evolutionary responses of traits.

An assessment of the reliability of quantitative genetics estimates in study systems with high rate of extra-pair reproduction and low recruitment.

Quantitative genetics approaches, and particularly animal models, are widely used to assess the genetic (co)variance of key fitness related traits and infer adaptive potential of wild populations. Despite the importance of precision and accuracy of genetic variance estimates and their potential sensitivity to various ecological and population specific factors, their reliability is rarely tested explicitly. Here, we used simulations and empirical data collected from an 11-year study on tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor), a species showing a high rate of extra-pair paternity and a low recruitment rate, to assess the importance of identity errors, structure and size of the pedigree on quantitative genetic estimates in our dataset.

History of Uterine Surgery Is Not Associated With an Increased Severity of Bladder Deep Endometriosis.

Study Objective: To analyze whether a history of uterine surgery correlates with disease severity in patients with bladder deep infiltrating endometriosis (DIE).

Design: This was an observational, cross-sectional study using data collected prospectively (Canadian Task Force classification II-2).

Setting: A single university tertiary referral center.

Risks of tubo-ovarian abscess in cases of endometrioma and assisted reproductive technologies are both under- and overreported.

Objective: To study possible associations among endometriosis, pelvic infectious disease, and ART.

Design: Retrospective cohort analysis over 4 consecutive years, based on medical records and insurance coding in a tertiary endometriosis reference center.

Setting: Tertiary university-based reference center for endometriosis.

Updated French guidelines for diagnosis and management of pelvic inflammatory disease.

Background: Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is commonly encountered in clinical practice.

Objectives: To provide up-to-date guidelines on management of PID.

Search Strategy: An initial search of the Cochrane database, PubMed, and Embase was performed using keywords related to PID to identify reports in any language published between January 1990 and January 2012, with an update in May 2015.

Skeletal Muscle Insulin Resistance and Absence of Inflammation Characterize Insulin-Resistant Grade I Obese Women.

Context: Obesity is associated with insulin-resistance (IR), the key feature of type 2 diabetes. Although chronic low-grade inflammation has been identified as a central effector of IR development, it has never been investigated simultaneously at systemic level and locally in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue in obese humans characterized for their insulin sensitivity.

Objectives: We compared metabolic parameters and inflammation at systemic and tissue levels in normal-weight and obese subjects with different insulin sensitivity to better understand the mechanisms involved in IR development.