Decidualization score identifies an endometrial dysregulation in samples from women with recurrent pregnancy losses and unexplained infertility.

Objective: To study decidualization-associated endometrial factors.

Design: Retrospective cohort study to compare endometrial gene expression patterns in women experiencing reproductive failure including recurrent pregnancy loss or unexplained infertility versus fertile controls.

Setting: University Reproductive Medicine Center.

COVID-19 and immunomodulation treatment for women with reproductive failures.

COVID-19 pandemic is affecting various areas of health care, including human reproduction. Many women with reproductive failures, during the peri-implantation period and pregnancy, are on the immunotherapy using immune modulators and immunosuppressant due to underlying autoimmune diseases, cellular immune dysfunction, and rheumatic conditions. Many questions have been raised for women with immunotherapy during the COVID-19 pandemic, including infection susceptibility, how to manage women with an increased risk of and active COVID-19 infection.

Intralipid treatment for women with reproductive failures.

Does intravenous intralipid treatment for reproductive failure enhance live births? The answer to this question is yes, BUT only in patients that have a diagnosis of recurrent implantation failure (RIF) or recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) loss AND demonstrate elevated NK (natural killer) cell density in their endometrial biopsy. Live birth rates have been reported between 33% and 42% among women displaying elevated NK activity with a diagnosis of RIF and 75% and 91% among women experiencing RPL after intralipid infusion. When the pregnancy outcomes of women with a history of reproductive failure and elevated NK cells treated with intralipid were evaluated, the overall live birth rate per cycle of treatment was 61%.

Correction: PreImplantation factor (PIF) protects cultured embryos against oxidative stress: relevance for recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) therapy.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.16028.

Prevalence of HHV-6 in endometrium from women with recurrent implantation failure.

Problem: To study the prevalence of HHV-6 in endometrial biopsies among women experiencing recurrent implantation failure (RIF) after IVF/ET compared with controls.

Method Of Study: Thirty women experiencing RIF after IVF/ET and 10 fertile women participated in the study. All women had endometrial biopsies taken in the luteal phase of their menstrual cycle for an endometrial immune profile (EIP) and HHV-6 mRNA as well as lymphocyte and granulocyte populations.

PreImplantation factor (PIF) protects cultured embryos against oxidative stress: relevance for recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) therapy.

Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) affects 2-3% of couples. Despite a detailed work-up, the etiology is frequently undefined, leading to non-targeted therapy. Viable embryos and placentae express PreImplantation Factor (PIF).

Is superfertility associated with recurrent pregnancy loss?

Problem: A recent hypothesis has implicated superfertility as a cause of recurrent pregnancy loss. Clinical support for the concept comes from one report that 40% of women experiencing recurrent miscarriages had monthly fecundity rates of 60% or greater and thus were designated as superfertile.

Methods Of Study: To confirm or refute this finding, clinical histories of 201 women with a history of recurrent pregnancy loss were reviewed and months to desired pregnancy, karyotypes of their products of conception as well as results of laboratory tests including antiphospholipid antibodies and circulating natural killer cells were recorded.

Preimplantation factor inhibits circulating natural killer cell cytotoxicity and reduces CD69 expression: implications for recurrent pregnancy loss therapy.

Embryo-secreted preimplantation factor (PIF) is necessary for, and its concentration correlates with, embryo development in humans by promoting implantation and trophoblast invasion. Synthetic PIF (sPIF) modulates systemic immunity and is effective in autoimmune disease models. sPIF binds monocytes and activated T and B cells, leading to immune tolerance without suppression.

A search to identify genetic risk factors for endometriosis.

Problem: To search for molecular markers of endometriosis the following polymorphisms: p53 codon 72 Pro (apoptosis), TNF alpha-308 (inflammation), VEGF-1164AA (angiogenesis), and SOD2 (oxidative stress) were investigated.

Method Of Study: Forty-two women-24 with surgically proven endometriosis and 18 with no endometriosis found at the time of laparoscopy-had buccal swabs taken for DNA analyses of 4 gene polymorphisms including p53codon72, TNF-308 G/A, VEGF-1154G/A, SOD Ala16Val DNA. The frequencies of genotypes and alleles of these polymorphisms were compared between women with and without endometriosis.

Does immunotherapy for treatment of reproductive failure enhance live births?

Before effective treatment for reproductive failure can be instituted, the cause of the failure must be determined. A search of PubMed was made to identify the published data regarding diagnosis and treatment of reproductive failure. Results were compared with the frequency of antiphospholipid antibodies (APA) in 2995 women with histories of unexplained infertility, recurrent implantation failure, recurrent pregnancy loss, and fertile women.

Preimplantation factor negates embryo toxicity and promotes embryo development in culture.

Preimplantation factor (PIF) is secreted by viable mammalian embryos and promotes implantation and trophoblast invasion. Whether PIF also has a direct protective or promoting effect on the developing embryo in culture is unknown. This study examined the protective effects of synthetic PIF (sPIF) on embryos cultured with embryo toxic serum (ETS) from recurrent pregnancy loss patients (n=14), by morphological criteria at 72 h of culture, and determined sPIF-promoting effect on singly cultured bovine IVF embryo development.

Chromatin intact human sperm recovery is higher following glass wool column filtration as compared with density gradient centrifugation.

The sperm DNA quality as determined by chromatin integrity has been reported to be associated with in vivo and in vitro fertility. However, previous studies have evaluated preparation procedures to select motile, morphologically normal and mature spermatozoa, but not the spermatozoa with intact sperm chromatin. To determine which technique yields a population of spermatozoa with improved DNA quality, split ejaculate was processed with density gradient centrifugation (DGC) procedure and glass wool column filtration (GWF) procedure.

PreImplantation Factor (PIF) correlates with early mammalian embryo development-bovine and murine models.

Background: PreImplantation Factor (PIF), a novel peptide secreted by viable embryos is essential for pregnancy: PIF modulates local immunity, promotes decidual pro-adhesion molecules and enhances trophoblast invasion. To determine the role of PIF in post-fertilization embryo development, we measured the peptide's concentration in the culture medium and tested endogenous PIF's potential trophic effects and direct interaction with the embryo.

Methods: Determine PIF levels in culture medium of multiple mouse and single bovine embryos cultured up to the blastocyst stage using PIF-ELISA.

Is apolipoprotien E codon 112 polymorphisms associated with recurrent pregnancy loss?

Problem: To compare the prevalence of 112T>C point mutations among women experiencing RPL with fertile control women.

Method Of Study: Buccal swabs were obtained from 232 individuals: 136 with a history of >or=2 abortions, 37 with at least 2 live births and 59 with a history of deep vein thrombosis (DVT). DNA was extracted and PCR amplification of Apo E codons was performed.

Prevalence of antiphospholipid antibodies among women experiencing unexplained infertility and recurrent implantation failure.

The prevalences of antiphospholipid antibodies (APAs) among 1,325 women with a history of unexplained infertility and 676 women experiencing recurrent implantation failure were compared with 789 women experiencing recurrent pregnancy loss and 205 fertile control women. Eight percent and 9% of women with a history of unexplained infertility and recurrent implantation failure had more than one positive APA compared with 1.5% of fertile negative control women and 11% of positive control women experiencing recurrent pregnancy loss.

Are polymorphisms in the ACE and PAI-1 genes associated with recurrent spontaneous miscarriages?

Problem: To determine whether the ACE D/D genotype or the combination of PAI-1 4G/4G and ACE D/D genotypes may serve as a risk factor for recurrent pregnancy loss.

Method Of Study: Buccal swabs were obtained from 120 women experiencing recurrent pregnancy loss and from 84 fertile control women. DNA was extracted from the buccal swab samples using the Qiagen DNA Mini Kit (Qiagen), followed by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Correlation between neutral alpha-glucosidase activity and sperm DNA fragmentation.

To evaluate the association between neutral alpha-glucosidase (NAG) activity and sperm DNA fragmentation (DFI), ejaculates from 24 men undergoing evaluation for sperm DNA damage as a part of infertility assessment were analysed. The mean +/- SD and range for the semen quality of the 24 ejaculates are as follows: volume (3.1 +/- 1.

How well does CT predict the need for laparotomy in hemodynamically stable patients with penetrating abdominal injury? A review and meta-analysis.

Objective: The objective of our study was to determine how well CT predicts the need for laparotomy in hemodynamically stable patients with penetrating abdominal injury.

Materials And Methods: We reviewed MEDLINE articles published from January 1994 through June 2008. The sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value (NPV), positive predictive value (PPV), and accuracy were calculated for each source and collectively using a meta-analysis.

How to predict implantation? No correlation between embryonic aneuploidy and soluble human leukocyte antigen G-concentrations.

Objective: To determine if soluble human leukocyte antigen-G (sHLA-G) concentrations in spent culture media may assist in identifying the normal embryo for implantation.

Design: Prospective blinded comparative study.

Setting: Reproductive genetic and reproductive medicine centers.

Blockade of epithelial membrane protein 2 (EMP2) abrogates infection of Chlamydia muridarum murine genital infection model.

New methods are needed to eradicate or prevent Chlamydia trachomatis infections. Blockade of epithelial membrane protein 2 (EMP2) by genetic silencing or neutralizing polyclonal antibody reduced chlamydial infectivity in vitro. This study tests the prediction that recombinant anti-EMP2 diabody could reduce early chlamydial infection of the genital tract in vivo.

The association of Apoprotein E polymorphisms with recurrent pregnancy loss.

Problem: We have previously reported the role of polymorphisms of thrombogenic genes involved in coagulation and fibrinolysis as risk factors for recurrent pregnancy loss. Thrombophilia has been viewed as a multigenic disorder rather than a monogenetic clinical phenotype and Apo E has been shown to play an important role in lipid metabolism in pregnancy. As individuals carrying the E4 allele of the ApoE gene have the highest risk for thrombosis, we evaluated the frequency of the Apo E4 genotype among women suffering from recurrent pregnancy loss.

Diabodies targeting epithelial membrane protein 2 reduce tumorigenicity of human endometrial cancer cell lines.

Purpose: Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecologic malignancy. One promising biomarker is epithelial membrane protein 2 (EMP2), and its expression is an independent prognostic indicator for tumors with poor clinical outcome expression. The present study assesses the suitability of EMP2 as a therapeutic target.