Early Alteration of Right Ventricle-Pulmonary Artery Coupling in Experimental Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction.

Background: Pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular (RV) dysfunction are major prognostic determinants in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). The underlying pathomechanisms remain unknown. In this context, we sought to study the pathogenesis of pulmonary hypertension and RV dysfunction in a rat model of obesity-associated HFpEF.

Beneficial Effects of Tacrolimus on Brain-Death-Associated Right Ventricular Dysfunction in Pigs.

Background: Right ventricular (RV) dysfunction remains a major problem after heart transplantation and may be associated with brain death (BD) in a donor. A calcineurin inhibitor tacrolimus was recently found to have beneficial effects on heart function. Here, we examined whether tacrolimus might prevent BD-induced RV dysfunction and the associated pathobiological changes.

[Clinical aspects of decidualization].

An essential component of successful conception and pregnancy is decidualization, which involves structural and functional transformation of the endometrium. The process involves structural changes in the uterine mucosa, transformation of spiral arterioles, numerical and functional adaptation of leukocytes in the endometrium and their subsequent migration, and functional and morphological changes in decidual stromal cells. As part of decidualization, trophoblast cells of embryonic origin perform a physiological invasion of maternal tissue to create the placenta.

[The role of natural killer cells in the immune homeostasis of the maternal fetal interface].

Successful conception, implantation and pregnancy require a complex and organized communication between the embryonal (allograft) and the maternal (host) immune system. Different leukocyte subsets have an important role in orchestrating the immune response at the fetal-maternal interface. There are certain similarities between the immune invasion of tumor cells and the physiological invasion of the trophoblastic cells of embryonic origin into the maternal decidua.