Effects of estradiol administration on brain activation and anhedonia in perimenopausal women: A pharmaco-fMRI study.

Background: Half of perimenopausal women experience depressive symptoms, including anhedonia. Anhedonia is associated with dysregulation of the frontostriatal circuit. Both the frontrostriatal circuit and depression may be regulated by the reproductive hormone estradiol (E2).

Multi-omics integration and immune profiling identify possible causal networks leading to uterine microbiome dysbiosis in dairy cows that develop metritis.

Background: Cows that develop metritis experience dysbiosis of their uterine microbiome, where opportunistic pathogens overtake uterine commensals. An effective immune response is critical for maintaining uterine health. Nonetheless, periparturient cows experience immune dysregulation, which seems to be intensified by prepartum over-condition.

Estradiol modulates resting-state connectivity in perimenopausal depression.

The perimenopausal transition is marked by an increased risk for affective dysregulation and major depressive disorder (MDD), with hormone replacement therapy using estradiol (E2) showing promise for alleviating symptoms of perimenopausal-onset MDD (PO-MDD). Although E2's effectiveness is recognized, its mechanisms underlying mood symptom modulation remain to be fully elucidated. Building on previous research suggesting that E2 may influence mood by altering cortico-subcortical connectivity, this study investigated the effects of transdermal E2 on resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) in perimenopausal women with and without PO-MDD, focusing on rsFC changes using seed regions within reward and emotion processing networks.

Integrating uterine microbiome and metabolome to advance the understanding of the uterine environment in dairy cows with metritis.

Background: Metritis is a prevalent uterine disease that affects the welfare, fertility, and survival of dairy cows. The uterine microbiome from cows that develop metritis and those that remain healthy do not differ from calving until 2 days postpartum, after which there is a dysbiosis of the uterine microbiome characterized by a shift towards opportunistic pathogens such as Fusobacteriota and Bacteroidota. Whether these opportunistic pathogens proliferate and overtake the uterine commensals could be determined by the type of substrates present in the uterus.