Publications by authors named "Salumets A"

Background: A didelphic uterus represents a unique and infrequent congenital condition in which a woman possesses two distinct uteri, each with its own cervix. This anomaly arises due to partial or incomplete merging of the Müllerian ducts during the developmental stages in the womb. Accounting for uterine malformations, a didelphic uterus is a relatively rare condition, affecting approximately 0.

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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.

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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.

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(1) Background: Endometriosis is a highly prevalent gynecological disease affecting 10% of women of reproductive age worldwide. miRNAs may play a role in endometriosis, though their exact function remains unclear. This study aimed to identify differentially expressed miRNAs in endometriosis and study their functions in the disease.

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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.

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We evaluated the efficacy of large language models (LLMs), specifically, generative pre-trained transformer-4 (GPT-4), in predicting pregnancy following in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment and compared its accuracy with results from an original published study. Our findings revealed that GPT-4 can autonomously develop and refine advanced machine learning models for pregnancy prediction with minimal human intervention. The prediction accuracy was 0.

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Olive leaf is a byproduct of the olive tree that is rich in phenolic compounds with potential anticarcinogenic effects against various cancers, including breast cancer. Nevertheless, the ingestion or topical application of such plant extracts faces certain limitations. These limitations can be addressed by encapsulating the extracts in nanovesicles to enhance their release and bioavailability.

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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.

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Endometriosis is a chronic hormone-dependent disease characterized by the spread of endometrial cells outside the uterus, which form endometriotic lesions and disrupt the functions of the affected organs. The etiopathogenesis of endometriosis is still unclear, and thus it is important to examine the genes that may contribute to the establishment of endometriotic lesions. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of new potential candidate gene (), an inhibitor of carboxypeptidases, in endometrium and endometriotic lesions to elucidate its possible role in endometriosis development.

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Stanniocalcin (STC) 1 and 2 serve as antihyperglycemic polypeptide hormones with critical roles in regulating calcium and phosphate homeostasis. They additionally function as paracrine and/or autocrine factors involved in numerous physiological processes, including female reproduction. STC1 and STC2 contribute to the pathophysiology of several diseases, including female infertility- and pregnancy-associated conditions, and even tumorigenesis of reproductive organs.

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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.
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The plasticizer di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is known to have endocrine-disrupting properties mediated by its many metabolites that form upon exposure in biological systems. In a previous study, we reported an inverse association between DEHP metabolites in the human ovarian follicular fluid (FF) and the responsiveness of the follicles to controlled ovarian stimulation during in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments. Here, we explored this association further through molecular analysis of the ovarian FF samples.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Researchers found that these endometriotic lesions use more sugar for energy, which suggests that we might be able to treat the disease without hormones by focusing on how the cells get their energy.
  • * They studied different types of cells in both healthy and affected tissue from women with endometriosis and discovered that certain cells change a lot in terms of energy use, pointing to new ways to possibly treat the disease.
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  • The ovarian cortical reserve of follicles is really important for having babies, but some medical treatments can harm them, leading to fertility issues.
  • Researchers studied 120 follicles from kids and adults and found two main types of follicles in both age groups, which helps understand their roles better.
  • They discovered that while growth patterns are similar, there are some differences in the cells and genes, and they found new marker genes that could improve how we preserve fertility at different ages.
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Background: Endometriosis, defined as the presence of endometrial-like tissue outside of the uterus, is one of the most prevalent gynecological disorders. Although different theories have been proposed, its pathogenesis is not clear. Novel studies indicate that the gut microbiome may be involved in the etiology of endometriosis; nevertheless, the connection between microbes, their dysbiosis, and the development of endometriosis is understudied.

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Phthalates are endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) found in common consumer products such as soft plastics and cosmetics. Although the knowledge regarding the adverse effects of phthalates on female fertility are accumulating, information on the hormone sensitive endometrium is still scarce. Here, we studied the effects of phthalates on endometrial cell proliferation and gene expression.

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Article Synopsis
  • Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a common vaginal infection in pregnant women, particularly impacting health outcomes during pregnancy, yet screening isn't routine in Vietnam.
  • A study involving 885 pregnant women in their third trimester found that 11.1% had BV, with a significant number also experiencing fungal infections and past miscarriage linked to higher rates of BV.
  • The findings emphasize the need for increased awareness and routine testing for BV in pregnant women to improve health outcomes, particularly in relation to symptoms like fishy discharge.
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The beneficial effects of physical activity (PA) on gut microbiome have been reported, nevertheless the findings are inconsistent, with the main limitation of subjective methods for assessing PA. It is well accepted that using an objective assessment of PA reduces the measurement error and also allows objective assessment of sedentary behavior (SB). We aimed to study the associations between accelerometer-assessed behaviors (i.

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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.

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The endometrium, the inner mucosal lining of the uterus, undergoes complex molecular and cellular changes across the menstrual cycle in preparation for embryo implantation. Transcriptome-wide analyses have mainly been utilized to study endometrial receptivity, the prerequisite for successful implantation, with most studies, so far, comparing the endometrial transcriptomes between (i) secretory and proliferative endometrium or (ii) mid-secretory and early secretory endometrium. In the current study, we provide a complete transcriptome description of the endometrium across the entire menstrual cycle and, for the first time, comprehensively characterize the proliferative phase of the endometrium.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals affects women's reproductive health by analyzing steroid hormone production (steroidogenesis) in human ovaries across different life stages, including fetal and adult periods.
  • A specialized LC-MS/MS method was used to measure levels of 21 steroid hormones in ovarian cultures and follicular fluid, revealing significant differences in hormone profiles between fetal and adult ovaries.
  • Findings indicate unique hormone biosynthesis pathways in both fetal and adult tissues, with distinct clusters showing different hormone levels, highlighting the reproductive hormonal dynamics crucial for understanding fertility and development.
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Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) are associated with a moderately higher risk of preterm birth and low birthweight, but the causes are unknown. A recent study by Mertens et al. reveals a link between being born through ART, ovarian stimulation, and an increased incidence of mitochondrial heteroplasmic variants that correlate with lower birthweight.

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Study Question: How does the gut bacteriome differ based on mood disorders (MDs) in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and how can the gut bacteriome contribute to the associations between these two conditions?

Summary Answer: Women with PCOS who also have MDs exhibited a distinct gut bacteriome with reduced alpha diversity and a significantly lower abundance of Butyricicoccus compared to women with PCOS but without MDs.

What Is Known Already: Women with PCOS have a 4- to 5-fold higher risk of having MDs compared to women without PCOS. The gut bacteriome has been suggested to influence the pathophysiology of both PCOS and MDs.

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Study Question: Can generative artificial intelligence (AI) models produce high-fidelity images of human blastocysts?

Summary Answer: Generative AI models exhibit the capability to generate high-fidelity human blastocyst images, thereby providing substantial training datasets crucial for the development of robust AI models.

What Is Known Already: The integration of AI into IVF procedures holds the potential to enhance objectivity and automate embryo selection for transfer. However, the effectiveness of AI is limited by data scarcity and ethical concerns related to patient data privacy.

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