Publications by authors named "Keiu Kask"

Background: Endometriosis is characterized by the ectopic growth of endometrial-like cells, causing chronic pelvic pain, adhesions and impaired fertility in women of reproductive age. Usually, these lesions grow in the peritoneal cavity in a hypoxic environment. Hypoxia is known to affect gene expression and protein kinase (PK) activity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Increasing infertility rates represent a growing medical challenge in modern societies resulting from a complex interplay of sociocultural trends, lifestyle factors, exposure to environmental toxins, and underlying health problems. Women's fertility is particularly vulnerable to these shifts. The obesogenic lifestyle not only accelerates weight gain, but also disrupts ovulation driving the rise in infertility.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Patient-derived endometrial biopsies serve as a crucial source for molecular studies, highlighting the necessity for tissue cryopreservation methods that preserve cell viability and tissue morphology with minimal to no impact. The passive slow freezing (PSF) protocol has demonstrated efficacy for cryopreserving endometrial biopsies, allowing for the subsequent isolation of viable epithelial and stromal cells. Vitrification (VT) enables the avoidance of ice crystal formation and could therefore potentially prevent mechanical injury to tissues.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Phthalate monoesters have been identified as endocrine disruptors in a variety of models, yet understanding of their exact mechanisms of action and molecular targets in cells remains incomplete. Here, we set to determine whether epidemiologically relevant mono(2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl) phthalate (MEHHP) can affect biological processes by altering cell plasma membrane fluidity or formation of cell-cell contacts. As a model system, we chose endometrial stromal cell lines, one of which was previously used in a transcriptomic study with MEHHP or MEHHP-containing mixtures.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study looks at how the endometrium (the inner lining of the uterus) changes as women get older and whether these changes affect their ability to have babies.
  • It was found that older women (over 45) have different endometrial cells and gene activity compared to younger women, which could make it harder for embryos to implant.
  • The research included 44 women undergoing hormone treatment and examined biopsies to see how ready their endometrium was for pregnancy at different ages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Endometrial CD138+ plasma cells serve as a diagnostic biomarker for endometrial inflammation, and their elevated occurrence correlates positively with adverse pregnancy outcomes. Infertility-related conditions like polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and recurrent implantation failure (RIF) are closely associated with systemic and local chronic inflammatory status, wherein endometrial CD138+ plasma cell accumulation could also contribute to endometrial pathology. Current methods for quantifying CD138+ cells typically involve laborious and time-consuming microscopic assessments of only a few random areas from a slide.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The human endometrium undergoes a monthly cycle of tissue growth and degeneration. During the mid-secretory phase, the endometrium establishes an optimal niche for embryo implantation by regulating cellular composition (e.g.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Ovarian tissue cryopreservation is vital for fertility preservation, yet its effect on ovarian tissue follicle survival and transcriptomic signature requires further investigation. This study delves into the effects of vitrification on tissue morphology, function, and transcriptomic changes, helping to find possibilities for vitrification protocol improvements.

Methods: Ovarian cortex from 19 bovine animals were used to conduct pre- and post-vitrification culture followed by histological assessment, immunohistochemistry, and TUNEL assay.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hyperandrogenic women with PCOS show disrupted decidualization (DE) and placentation. Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is reported to enhance DE in non-PCOS endometrial stromal cells (eSC); however, this has not been assessed in PCOS cells (eSC). Therefore, we studied the transcriptome profile of non-decidualized (non-DE) and DE eSCs from women with PCOS and Ctrl in response to short-term estradiol (E2) and/or progesterone (P4) exposure with/without (±) DHT.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Metastatic cancers account for up to 90% of cancer-related deaths. The clear differentiation of metastatic cancers from primary cancers is crucial for cancer type identification and developing targeted treatment for each cancer type. DNA methylation patterns are suggested to be an intriguing target for cancer prediction and are also considered to be an important mediator for the transition to metastatic cancer.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Ovarian insufficiency is a major concern for long-term cancer survivors. Although semen freezing is well established to preserve male fertility, the possibilities to secure post-cancer female fertility are mostly limited to oocyte or embryo freezing. These methods require time-consuming ovarian stimulation with or without in vitro fertilization (IVF) that evidently delays cancer therapy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Human embryonic stem (hES) cells need special conditions, like certain growth factors and a surface to stick to, to stay healthy and keep their ability to turn into different cell types.
  • A protein called integrin β1 is super important for hES cells to stick together, move around, and change into other cells, and if it’s blocked, the hES cells can die or lose their special abilities.
  • Using a substance called Y-27632 helped the hES cells move better and change into different cell types, showing that integrin β1 is key for their survival and growth in groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Autosomal recessive disorders such as Fukuyama congenital muscular dystrophy, Walker-Warburg syndrome, and the muscle-eye-brain disease are characterized by defects in the development of patient's brain, eyes, and skeletal muscles. These syndromes are accompanied by brain malformations like type II lissencephaly in the cerebral cortex with characteristic overmigrations of neurons through the breaches of the pial basement membrane. The signaling pathways activated by laminin receptors, dystroglycan and integrins, control the integrity of the basement membrane, and their malfunctioning may underlie the pathologies found in the rise of defects reminiscent of these syndromes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

RIC8A functions as a chaperone and guanine nucleotide exchange factor for a subset of G protein α subunits. Multiple G protein subunits mediate various signalling events that regulate cell adhesion and migration and the involvement of RIC8A in some of these processes has been demonstrated. We have previously shown that the deficiency of RIC8A causes a failure in mouse gastrulation and neurogenesis - major events in embryogenesis that rely on proper association of cells with the extracellular matrix (ECM) and involve active cell migration.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Targeting of G proteins to the cell cortex and their activation is one of the triggers of both asymmetric and symmetric cell division. Resistance to inhibitors of cholinesterase 8 (RIC8), a guanine nucleotide exchange factor, activates a certain subgroup of G protein α-subunits in a receptor independent manner. RIC8 controls the asymmetric cell division in Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster, and symmetric cell division in cultured mammalian cells, where it regulates the mitotic spindle orientation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

RIC8A is a noncanonical guanine nucleotide exchange factor for a subset of Gα subunits. RIC8A has been reported in different model organisms to participate in the control of mitotic cell division, cell signalling, development and cell migration. Still, the function of RIC8A in the mammalian nervous system has not been sufficiently analysed yet.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Resistance to inhibitors of cholinesterase 8 (RIC8) is a guanine nucleotide exchange factor required for the intracellular regulation of G protein signalling. RIC8 activates different Gα subunits via non-canonical pathway, thereby amplifying and prolonging the G protein mediated signal. In order to circumvent the embryonic lethality associated with the absence of RIC8A and to study its role in the nervous system, we constructed Ric8a conditional knockout mice using Cre/loxP technology.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_sessionfst6jqbsthbro3l64rmr1mu58575o83v): Failed to open stream: No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 177

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once